December 13, 2021
New Field Guide Available for Cancer Prevention Programs
Field Guide for Assessing Readiness to Implement Evidence-Based Cancer Screening Interventions
The University of Washington Health Promotion Research Center (UW HPRC) and collaborators developed a field guide to help public health and health care organizations improve colorectal cancer screening rates with their clinic partners.
Despite strong evidence to support colorectal cancer screening, many adults are not screened as recommended. Lower screening rates directly contribute to higher death rates from colorectal cancer.
The UW Health Promotion Research Center and its cancer prevention and control partners wanted to help clinics change this.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP), Emory University, and University of California at Los Angeles were key collaborators and contributors for the development of the guide.
Who & What of the Field Guide
We know that evidence-based interventions — strategies that are proven to work — can help organization achieve their goals. For cancer screening, these interventions can improve the quality of cancer screening and/or increase the number of people screened.
The new Field Guide centers around supporting public health and health care organizations to work with their primary care clinic partners in determining if the clinic is ready to put new cancer screening evidence-based interventions into use and/or enhance existing ones. The ultimate goal is to increase colorectal cancer screening rates, which can help save lives.
While the Field Guide is designed for organizations who receive funding from the CDC’s Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP), other cancer screening and chronic disease programs may find the Field Guide useful.
The CRCCP currently has 35 funding recipients, including 20 state health departments, eight universities, and two tribal organizations.
Resources & Tools of the Field Guide
To support CRCCP funding recipients and their clinic partners, the guide provides adaptable resources for collecting, evaluating, interpreting, and using data to develop implementation plans for evidence-based interventions in clinics.
CRCCP funding recipients are required to assess each of their clinic partner’s cancer screening evidence-based interventions and/or their readiness to use such interventions. These assessments help recipients and their partnering clinics choose interventions that fit the needs of providers and patients.
The Field Guide leads partners through four phases to create a team, complete an assessment of how ready a clinic is to adopt evidence-based interventions, evaluate data from the assessment, and create a plan to select and implement evidence-based interventions that match the clinic’s current readiness.
The guide also provides a checklist of activities for each phase, as well as links and information to existing data collection tools developed and used by multiple CRCCP funding recipients.
CRCCP Funding Recipient Insight
“We considered use and effectiveness of each evidence-based intervention and how each could address gaps in the partners’ clinics screening process. These interventions need to be feasible for partners.”
CRCCP funding recipient
Please note, the CDC refers to funding recipients as CRCCP awardees.
Partnerships of the Field Guide
The Field Guide is a product of the Alliance for Reducing Cancer, Northwest at the UW Health Promotion Research Center. The center is a member of the Prevention Research Centers (PRC) network, supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Additional support for this guide was provided by the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors.
This work would not have been possible without the support of CRCCP funding recipients and program consultants.
Recommendations in the Field Guide are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the CDC.