Introducing the New NCCRT Learning Center!

We are excited to launch the NCCRT Learning Center, a digital learning platform which features courses, tools, and other resources on colorectal cancer screening delivery and research. Current educational offerings include:

• The Colonoscopy Needs Calculator—This tool estimates the number of colonoscopies your practice can realistically anticipate with a high-quality stool-based colorectal cancer screening program based on various screening rate goals and other data inputs. It also provides an estimation of what the total colonoscopy need would cost a system as well as a comparison between the costs of treating cancer and costs of providing colonoscopies.
• The Communications Education Portal—This course houses our suite of market research findings on the unscreened for colorectal cancer and messaging recommendations to more effectively develop communication campaigns and resources for unscreened populations. Learners can peruse the market research findings from start to finish or jump in to find just what you need to educate, empower, and mobilize those who are not getting screened for colorectal cancer.

We plan to populate the NCCRT Learning Center, a subsite of our main website, www.nccrt.org, with additional tools and learning modules over time. Users can create an account to track your progress, learn when new content is released, and access more courses as they become available.

New Blog Post with UCLA Health, 2021 80% in Every Community National Achievement Award Grand Prize Winner

Don’t miss the latest post on the 80% Blog featuring Dr. Folasade May of UCLA Health, our 2021 80% in Every Community National Achievement Award grand prize winner. Learn about the multifaceted approach Dr. May and her colleagues used to promote colorectal cancer screening, which allowed them to maintain a screening rate increase of 10 percentage points despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Congratulations again to UCLA Health, and many thanks to Dr. May for spending time with us to share how they achieved success!

NCI Relaunches RTIPs as Evidence-Based Cancer Control Programs

In October 2020, NCI relaunched the Research-Tested Intervention Programs (RTIPs) website with a new design and name – Evidence-Based Cancer Control Programs (EBCCP).

The Evidence-Based Cancer Control Programs (EBCCP) website is a searchable database of behavioral, psychosocial, and policy programs, including profiles for 22 colorectal cancer screening-specific programs. The website also includes tools and materials that program planners and public health practitioners can use to help prevent cancer and support cancer survivors and their caregivers.

Reminder: Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Addition of CRC Screening to the 2022 Medicaid Core Set

In May the Medicaid Child and Adult Core Set Annual Review Workgroup met to make recommendations for changes to the Child and Adult Core Sets for 2022 and voted unanimously to recommend adding colorectal cancer screening as a quality measure.

The Workgroup’s draft report, Recommendations for Improving the Core Sets of Health Care Quality Measures for Medicaid and CHIP: Summary of a Multistakeholder Review of the 2022 Child and Adult Core Sets, has now been released for public comment ahead of the final report and release of the final 2022 Core Sets by December 31, 2021.

Public comments may be submitted via email to [email protected] by 8:00 PM ET on Friday, August 6, 2021. Please include “2022 Core Set Review Public Comment” in the subject line and specify whether you are commenting as an individual or on behalf of an organization.

Margaret Hitchcock and Stony Anderson of the California Colorectal Cancer Coalition (C4) have generously offered to share a sample email developed to support the addition of the measure, which you are welcome to use and adapt.

Relevant Journal Articles, Publications, & Other News

• The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, jointly issued by the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is an update of rates for new cases and deaths as well as trends for the most common cancers in the United States.
• The latest issue of Preventive Medicine, From disruption to recovery: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cancer Screening, is a special issue focused on COVID-19 and cancer screening with several articles on colorectal cancer screening.