Mailed FIT Implementation Guide

The Mailed FIT Implementation Guide provides a roadmap for how health systems and other entities can design and carry out mailed fecal immunochemical test (FIT) outreach programs, including information on key partnerships and what to have in place before launching a program. The guide was produced in partnership with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The goal of this guide is to provide clinic and health system administrators and staff with the information needed to make informed decisions and successfully implement an outreach program. The guide details the process for planning and implementing an outreach program by addressing: Prerequisites (Technical Resources & Capacity); Getting Ready; Selecting a FIT; Executing a Mailed FIT Outreach Program; and Sustaining the Program. It also includes a section of mailed FIT references and resources.

Evaluation: The evidence provided in the Mailed FIT Implementation Guide is based on two recent primary sources. The first source is the five-year STOP CRC pragmatic trial of mailed FIT outreach in federally qualified health centers (2013-2018), which investigated whether the use of mailed FIT outreach, together with follow-up colonoscopy for abnormal FIT results, could increase CRC screening rates above those obtained with the usual care approach of opportunistic screening within 26 federally qualified community health center clinics in Oregon and California. The findings showed a significant improvement in CRC screening rates and an overall FIT return rate of 21%. The second source of evidence is from the 2019 CDC-sponsored and NACDD hosted Mailed FIT Summit, which included subject matter experts and stakeholders from across the nation. An accompanying journal article published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians described the Summit goals, process, and findings in detail.

Permissions: Made publicly available online by the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors.

Publication date: Published October 2021, last revised June 14, 2022

Post date: August 22, 2022

Contact: Please send comments or questions to Lorrie Graaf (lgraaf_ic@chronicdisease.org) or Dawn Wiatrek (dwiatrek_ic@chronicdisease.org).

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.

 

NCCN Guidelines for Patients: Colorectal Cancer Screening – 2021

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN®) announced the publication of Guidelines for Patients: Colorectal Cancer Screening in December 2021. This free guide for patients and caregivers breaks down the different ways screening can be done and explains the recommended timing according to the latest research. It is available in 18 languages.

The guide is supported in part by NCCRT member Fight Colorectal Cancer.

The NCCN issued a corresponding press release.

Evaluation: NCCN Guidelines for Patients are based on the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®), which are determined by multidisciplinary teams of experts from across NCCN Member Institutions.

Permissions: Made publicly available online by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Publication date: December 2021

Post date: June 13, 2022

Contact: Email PatientGuidelines@NCCN.org

 

 

 

How Can Women’s Health Providers Save More Lives from Colorectal Cancer?

This newly updated brief shares how women’s health providers can help advance the shared goal to reach colorectal cancer screening rates of 80% and higher in adults ages 45 and older.

NCCRT would like to thank the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for supporting the development of this resource, and for their longtime commitment to advancing colorectal cancer screening as an NCCRT member. 

 

 

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). 

NCCRT Learning Center

The NCCRT Learning Center is 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 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.

 

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. 

My CT Colonography Center Locator Tool

The American College of Radiology (ACR) is now offering the My CT Colonography Center online locator, a patient-friendly online tool to find a computed tomography (CT) colonography screening center near you.

Bracco Diagnostics, Inc. originally developed the tool, which includes 120 centers – only a portion of the more than 700 estimated centers that perform CT Colonography (CTC). The ACR will now work with stakeholders to explore ways to achieve the goal of having all facilities that perform CTC registered on a center locator. To date, there are 220 centers registered for the locator tool.

The webpage also includes patient brochures on CTC, a video of a patient receiving a CTC, and more.

Evaluation: This tool was developed as a collaborative effort with Bracco Diagnostic and ACR CTC registry participants discussing a need to increase awareness of CTC screening option for patients.


Permissions:
 Made publicly available online by the American College of Radiology.


Publication date: 
September 2019


Post date: 
April 20, 2020


Contact:
Submit comments, questions, and suggestions info@acr.org.

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

 

Penn State Health Electronic Employee Survey

Physician researchers at Penn State Health developed this colorectal cancer screening uptake and risk assessment tool for use by large entities such as employers and medical practices. The survey tool assesses whether an employee is up to date with screening based on 2016 USPSTF guidelines and also includes a risk assessment checklist to determine if the individual is at increased risk for colorectal cancer.

Penn State Health administered the survey to 6,188 employees, with a response rate of 45%. For respondents ≥50 years, 81% reported up-to-date colorectal cancer screening; thirty-three percent of all participants self-identified as high-risk.

Large employers are encouraged to adapt the survey tool and introduction letter for use with their employees.

Evaluation: The survey was administered electronically to all Penn State Health employees ≥40 years via an online platform. The survey anonymously collected demographic data. Associations between demographic/ risk factors and up-to-date screening status were examined using Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables and Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test for quantitative variables.

Permissions: These tools can be used by any large employer to measure their colorectal cancer screening rates.

Publication date: July 2018

Post date: December 18, 2018

Contact: Send comments, questions, and suggestions to Thomas McGarrity, MD at tmcgarrity@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.