On March 8th, 2022, the NCCRT convened over 300 attendees at its seventh annual Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month Webcast to celebrate national achievements and to share the latest state of the field updates.

The webcast opened with an overview of the landscape of colorectal cancer screening in 2022, including information on ongoing impacts from COVID and recent policy successes. The program then featured the NCCRT’s six 80% in Every Community National Achievement Award honorees, who shared about their strategies and successes in reaching under-represented communities for colorectal cancer screening and breaking down barriers to screening at both the community and state policy level.

The webinar included leaders thought-leaders and policy experts, including:

• Steven Itzkowitz, MD, Gastroenterologist and Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; NCCRT Chair
• Robert Smith, PHD; Senior Vice President, Cancer Screening; American Cancer Society; NCCRT Co-chair
• Lisa Richardson, MD, MPH, Director, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; NCCRT Steering Committee
• Donald Moore, CEO, Pueblo Community Health Center, 2022 80% in Every Community National Achievement Award Grand Prize Recipient
• Linda Thurman-Sanchez, RN, Clinical Programs Nursing Manager, Pueblo Community Health Center, 2022 80% in Every Community National Achievement Award Grand Prize Recipient
• Keith Winfrey, MD, MPH, CMO, New Orleans East Louisiana Community Health Center; NCCRT Steering Committee; 2019 80% by 2018 National Achievement Award Grand Prize Recipient
• Shivan Mehta, MD, MBA, Associate Chief Innovation Officer, Penn Medicine; Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 2022 80% in Every Community National Achievement Award Honoree
• Joseph Ravenell, MD, Associate Professor in the Departments of Population Health and Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine
• Mia Ackerman, Member, Rhode Island House of Representatives
• Desiree Berenguer Carton, Director, Regional Integrated Marketing, American Cancer Society Northeast Region (Host)

Following are several relevant links referenced in the webcast:

• January 2022 EPIC EHR report on COVID Impacts to CRC Screening: https://epicresearch.org/articles/troubling-cancer-screening-rates-still-seen-nearly-two-years-into-the-pandemic
• CDC’s Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP): https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/crccp/index.htm
  • Grantee Success Story 1: https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/ncccp/success-stories/texas-voucher-program.htm
  • Grantee Success Story 2: https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/crccp/success/iowa.htm
• The Cancer Moonshot initiative: https://www.whitehouse.gov/cancermoonshot/?ACSTrackingID=USCDC_9_13-DM69607&ACSTrackingLabel=DCPC%20Announcement%20-%20Cancer%20Moonshot%20&deliveryName=USCDC_9_13-DM69607
• President’s Cancer Panel Cancer Screening Report: https://prescancerpanel.cancer.gov/report/cancerscreening/
• NCCRT webinar covering the implementation timeline for CRC screening coverage at age 45:
• https://nccrt.org/resource/webinar-2021-uspstf-colorectal-cancer-screening-recommendation-lowers-screening-age-from-50-to-45-implications-for-nccrt-partners/
• More information about the Medicaid measure success: https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20210827.643528/full/
• ACS CAN press release describing the January 2022 federal guidance that eliminates cost sharing for colonoscopies that follow a non-invasive CRC screening test: https://www.fightcancer.org/releases/new-guidance-administration-helps-ensure-coverage-follow-colonoscopies-will-save-lives
• Learn more about NCCRT’s 2022 awardees: http://pressroom.cancer.org/NCCRT2022 and https://nccrt.org/2022-awards/
• NCCRT’s market research findings and messaging guidebooks on reaching the unscreened for CRC: https://nccrt.org/resource/2019messagingguidebook/
• Register for the Association of Black Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists’ March 10, 2022 webinar from 8:00-9:00 PM ET, Let’s Beat Colorectal Cancer – An Update for the Black Community, an NCCRT-sponsored event, at letsbeatcrc.eventbrite.com