Setting: Gastroenterology/ endoscopy

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Blue Star Conversations – May 17, 2023

On May 17th, 2023, the NCCRT’s NCCRT Professional Education & Practice Implementation (PEPI) Strategic Priority Team hosted the latest Blue Star Conversation, an interactive program for NCCRT members and CDC grantees. The latest session highlighted a short presentation by Elizabeth Ciemins, PhD, MPH, MA, Vice President of Research and Analytics at AMGA (American Medical Group Association), on rates of follow-up colonoscopy after a positive stool-based screening test from the recent Jama New Open publication, Rates of Follow-up Colonoscopy After a Positive Stool-Based Screening Test Result for Colorectal Cancer Among Health Care Organizations in the US, 2017-2020. Afterwards, participants discussed potential opportunities and challenges to overcome barriers affecting follow-up colonoscopy. 

Visit NCCRT’s Events & Webinars page to find information about upcoming programs and events.

Key links:

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Webinar – 2022 Messaging Guidebook for Black & African American People: Messages to Motivate for Colorectal Cancer Screening – June 21, 2022

This webinar provided an introduction to the 2022 NCCRT Messaging Guidebook for Black & African American People: Messages to Motivate for Colorectal Cancer Screening. 

Speakers:

  • Kaitlin Sylvester, MPA, Director, NCCRT – Programs & Partnerships
  • Folasade (Fola) P. May, MD, PhD, MPhil, Director of Gastroenterology Quality, UCLA Health
  • Michelle Aubertine, MBA, Project Consultant, KS&R
  • Adjoa Anyane-Yeboa, MD, MPH, Gastroenterologist, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Attendees received an overview of the NCCRT market research findings, learned about identifying barriers to CRC screening, understanding preferred and trusted sources for receiving healthcare information, and learned which research-tested messages could help encourage unscreened Black and African American people to seek CRC screening.

 

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Download Age 45 Resource
Download Age 45 with 2023 Caveat Resource

The Dos and Don’ts of Colorectal Cancer Screening

This newly updated one-page flyer may be used to remind clinicians about some of the dos and don’ts when it comes to colorectal cancer screening. Partners have the option to cobrand the flyer with their organization’s logo. Contact your local American Cancer Society to learn more.

The flyer was updated in March 2022 to reflect the colorectal cancer screening starting age of 45 for average risk patients. Partners have the option to use one of two versions in 2022:

  • Age 45: This version references the starting age of 45 with no caveats (for health systems and health plans that are already covering screening at age 45 for all patients). 
  • Age 45 with 2023 caveat: This version references the starting age of 45 and includes an asterisk that explains that some health plans will not be required to follow the May 2021 USPSTF recommendation that lowered the age from 50 to 45 until 2023 (for health systems and health plans serving patients that may not yet have coverage for screening at age 45). 
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View Additional Course Information

Continuing Education Courses for Healthcare Providers on Colorectal Cancer Screening

To provide up-to-date information on recommended best practices for colorectal cancer screening, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with Medscape Education to create two continuing education courses for healthcare providers.

In one of these courses, Screening for Colorectal Cancer: Recommended Best Practices (0.5 CME/CNE credits), David Lieberman, MD, of Oregon Health and Science University, leads a video lecture that explains why colorectal cancer screening is important, how to determine the timing and frequency of colorectal cancer screening, recommended stool-based and direct visualization screening strategies, and how to improve screening quality with a programmatic approach and quality metrics.

The second course, CRC Screening and Surveillance: Optimizing Quality (1.0 CME/CNE credits), is a three-part clinical anthology that includes more detail on these topics and explains the role of primary care providers in stool testing and colonoscopy programs.

These free courses are available for continuing education credit. You can create a free Medscape account and view the courses at: https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/946291  and https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/945988.

Evaluation: The courses were developed by nationally recognized experts in colorectal cancer screening, including primary care clinicians, gastroenterologists, and epidemiologists.

Permissions: Made publicly available online through Medscape Education.

Publication date: March 15 and 24, 2021.

Post date: March 31, 2021.

Contact: Submit comments, questions, and suggestions via the links on the Medscape Education website. 

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Summary Report on Links of Care Pilot to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening for Underserved Patients

The newly released report, Report on a Pilot Project to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates and Ensure Access to Specialty Care for Underserved Patients, provides an overview of the Links of Care pilot project (2015-2017), which implemented evidence-based strategies to increase screening rates and timely access to specialists after abnormal screenings in three Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Participating FQHCs successfully increased CRC screening rates by 8-28 percentage points, secured low- or no-cost colonoscopies from specialty care providers, and implemented patient navigation to ensure timely follow-up to diagnostic services. The report outlines key facilitators to success.

Congratulations to the evaluators and authors that contributed to this publication, Lesley Watson, Kara Riehman, Mary Doroshenk, Rentonia Williams, Vonda Evans, Lynn Basilio, Maryanne Goss, and Roshan Paudel, as well as the numerous individuals that contributed to the pilot projects’ success.

The NCCRT Resources Center also includes two webinars that feature findings from the Links of Care pilot projects, including a 2017 webinar and a 2015 webinar. 

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Download Brief

Advanced Colorectal Polyp Brief

The National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable created the Advanced Colorectal Polyp GI Brief to help endoscopists and primary care clinicians identify patients with advanced colorectal polyps, understand the epidemiology and associated risk factors, and most importantly know the risks of colorectal neoplasia for patients with advanced colorectal polyps and their first-degree relatives (parents, siblings, children).

This brief aims to:

  1. Remind endoscopists that patients with an advanced colorectal polyp and their close relatives are at increased risk for advanced colorectal polyps and colorectal cancer;
  2. Keep endoscopists up to date with current guidelines; and,
  3. Provide template letters to communicate colonoscopy and pathology results, risk status, and follow-up recommendations for patients and close relatives.

Supplemental template letters: 

Learn more on how gastroenterologists and endoscopists can play a role in the national efforts to improve colorectal cancer screening rates:

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Clinician’s Reference: Stool-Based Tests for Colorectal Cancer Screening

This newly revised resource is designed to introduce (or reintroduce) clinicians to the value of stool-based testing for colorectal cancer. It explains the different types of stool-based tests available—Fecal Immunochemical Tests (FIT), High-Sensitivity Fecal Occult Blood Tests (HS-gFOBT) and FIT-DNA testing—and provides guidance on implementing high quality stool-based screening programs. The resource now includes information on sensitivity and specificity for many of the most commonly used tests.

We would like to thank the following individuals, many from the NCCRT Professional Education and Practice Implementation Task Group, for reviewing past and current versions of this resource and contributing to this work: James Allison, Kim Andrews, Barry Berger, Durado Brooks, Gloria Coronado, Debbie Kirkland, Theodore Levin, Dorothy Lane, Laura Makaroff, Marion Nadel, Kerstin Ohlander, Mike Potter, Robert Smith, and Richard Wender. We’d also like to thank the Comprehensive Cancer Control Program National Partners for providing funding support.

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80% in Every Community 2019 Messaging Guidebook: Recommended Messages to Reaching the Unscreened – July 16, 2019

This webinar provided an introduction to the 2019 80% in Every Community Messaging Guidebook: Recommended messages to reach the unscreened. The guidebook serves as a resource to both better understand the motivations, attitudes, and barriers of key unscreened populations, while it also recommends market tested messages that can educate and motivate these key audiences on the importance of colorectal cancer screening. The 2019 update to this NCCRT resource includes new findings, new population profiles, and message delivery insights that will better inform our efforts to improve colorectal cancer screening rates to 80% in Every Community. 

Speakers:

  • Michelle Aubertine, KS&R
  • Bill Willard, American Cancer Society

 

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paying for colorectal cancer screening
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Visit Interactive Website

Paying for Colorectal Cancer Screening Patient Navigation Toolkit & Interactive Website

The NCCRT and the Colorado School of Public Health have developed this suite of resources that provide practical advice on paying for and sustaining colorectal cancer screening patient navigation to help health care professionals at every stage of a navigation program. The Toolkit (PDF), originally released in 2017, has been updated in 2019, and we’ve also added an interactive website and technical assistance training modules to further support screening navigation.

The toolkit provides practical advice to help professionals at every stage in a variety of settings sustain navigation. The new, interactive website provides an overview of the fundamentals of sustainability with the Toolkit providing additional case studies, resources and support. In addition, for those agencies and organizations who are ready to apply the principles, an assessment and curriculum has been developed to guide agencies in developing their own plans for sustainability. Contact pnsustaincrc@gmail.com for inquiries about the curriculum. 

The content of the toolkit and curriculum developed was drawn from published and public information about patient navigation, as well as the experiences and expertise of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, the Colorado School of Public Health, the NCCRT Patient Navigation Toolkit Advisory Committee, and over 75 people and organizations who shared their time and expertise. Thank you to all who contributed to the toolkit, and special thanks to NCCRT Steering Committee member Andrea (Andi) Dwyer of the Colorado School of Public Health for her vision and leadership in developing this much requested resource.

View the June 27, 2019 webinar release and download the June 27, 2019 webinar slide deck to learn more. 

Watch the January 10, 2017 webinar introducing the original toolkit for more information.

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Links Of Care Update

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Links of Care Update – July 27, 2017

This webinar shared what we’ve learned so far from our Links of Care pilot project. The Links of Care pilots seek to improve colorectal cancer screening and follow up care for uninsured and underinsured patients by strengthening relationships between community health centers and the surrounding medical neighborhood. Speakers provided a brief overview of their specific pilot site, and discussed implementation, workflows, and lessons learned.

Background: In 2012, the Health Resources Service Administration (HRSA) began requiring Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to measure and report colorectal cancer screening rates. FQHCs were concerned about securing follow up care for patients with an abnormal diagnosis, as follow-up services are often prohibitively expensive for low-income, uninsured patients. To address this challenge, the American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the NCCRT implemented the Links of Care pilot program to promote collaboration between FQHCs serving low-income patients and specialty providers to secure diagnostic services. Goals were to increase timely access to specialists after an abnormal screening, implement evidence-based strategies to increase colorectal cancer screening rates, and assess project implementation.

Speakers:

  • Suzanne Lagarde, MD, MBA, FACP, Chief Executive Officer, Fair Haven Community Health Center, Connecticut
  • Julia Williams, RN, Chief Nursing Officer, Beaufort Jasper Hampton Comprehensive Health Services, Inc., South Carolina
  • Chris Singer, RN, CPHQ, Chief Operating Officer, West Side Community Health Services, Minnesota
  • Kara Riehman, PhD, Strategic Director, Evaluation & Research, American Cancer Society, Inc.