TY - JOUR
T1 - Strategies to Achieve Breast Health Equity in the St. Louis Region and Beyond over 15+ Years
AU - Drake, Bettina
AU - James, Aimee
AU - Miller, Heidi
AU - Anandarajah, Akila
AU - Davis, Kia
AU - Jackson, Sheryll
AU - Colditz, Graham
AU - Thompson, Vetta Sanders
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/5/1
Y1 - 2022/5/1
N2 - Community-based participatory strategies are a promising approach to addressing disparities in community health outcomes. This paper details the efforts of Siteman Cancer Center to achieve breast health equity over the past 15+ years. We begin by describing the activities and successes arising from our breast health community partnerships including identifying priorities, developing recommendations, and implementing patient navigation services to advance breast health. This system-wide coordinated navigation approach that includes primary and specialty care providers helped to increase potential impact on reducing breast health disparities by expediting care, increasing care efficiency, and standardizing referral procedures across systems for all women including those who are uninsured and underinsured. We also discuss a mobile mammography unit that has been deployed to serve women living in both urban and rural regions. The van reached a particularly vulnerable population that was mostly poor, uninsured, and with limited educational backgrounds regardless of their zip code of service. This work shows that collaborations between academic and community partners have resulted in decreased late stage at diagnosis and improved access to mammography. Furthermore, we offer lessons learned and recommendations that may be applicable to other communities.
AB - Community-based participatory strategies are a promising approach to addressing disparities in community health outcomes. This paper details the efforts of Siteman Cancer Center to achieve breast health equity over the past 15+ years. We begin by describing the activities and successes arising from our breast health community partnerships including identifying priorities, developing recommendations, and implementing patient navigation services to advance breast health. This system-wide coordinated navigation approach that includes primary and specialty care providers helped to increase potential impact on reducing breast health disparities by expediting care, increasing care efficiency, and standardizing referral procedures across systems for all women including those who are uninsured and underinsured. We also discuss a mobile mammography unit that has been deployed to serve women living in both urban and rural regions. The van reached a particularly vulnerable population that was mostly poor, uninsured, and with limited educational backgrounds regardless of their zip code of service. This work shows that collaborations between academic and community partners have resulted in decreased late stage at diagnosis and improved access to mammography. Furthermore, we offer lessons learned and recommendations that may be applicable to other communities.
KW - breast cancer
KW - community-based participatory research
KW - health disparities
KW - mobile mammography
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131638444&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/cancers14102550
DO - 10.3390/cancers14102550
M3 - Review article
C2 - 35626157
AN - SCOPUS:85131638444
SN - 2072-6694
VL - 14
JO - Cancers
JF - Cancers
IS - 10
M1 - 2550
ER -