Need: Rural Texas counties have a greater cancer burden than their urban counterparts due to access-to-care barriers (financial and/or transportation) and lack of infrastructure to carry out prevention programs. As a result, Texas rural women are more likely to have breast cancers diagnosed at later, more invasive stages, thus reflecting higher breast cancer mortality rates. Many of these rural counties are identified as Medically Underserved Service Areas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the incidence of breast cancer mortality rates are typically higher in these counties (12.6 – 15.2 age-adjusted rate per 100,000) than the Texas’ Standard Population Rate of 12.1 per ...

Read More

Rural Texas counties have a greater cancer burden than their urban counterparts due to access-to-care barriers (financial and/or transportation) and lack of infrastructure to carry out prevention programs. As a result, Texas rural women are more likely to have breast cancers diagnosed at later, more invasive stages, thus reflecting higher breast cancer mortality rates. Many of these rural counties are identified as Medically Underserved Service Areas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the incidence of breast cancer mortality rates are typically higher in these counties (12.6 – 15.2 age-adjusted rate per 100,000) than the Texas’ Standard Population Rate of 12.1 per 100,000.

To address these needs, The Rose proposes to increase access to and the availability of breast cancer screening and early detection to underserved women by expanding patient navigation and coordinated care to rural women living in ten medically underserved counties. The Rose will expand the previously CPRIT- funded project, Navigating Rural Highways: Increasing Access to Breast Cancer Care for Underserved Women in Southeast Texas, by applying efficient and effective strategies that will improve care coordination, increase breast cancer screening/detection rates and strengthen current safety-net systems within the targeted counties; four of which are not currently covered by CPRIT prevention projects. The Rose seeks grant funding from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas in the amount of $539,144 over 24 months to reach 250,000 people/professionals and serve 1,085 people/professionals within ten rural Texas counties.

Applying best practices and lessons learned from the aforementioned Navigating Rural Highways project, the Navigating Rural Highways II: Expanding Access to Breast Cancer Screening and the Care Continuum for Underserved Texas Women (NRH II) project will target underserved women age 40 and over who have never had a mammogram or have not had a mammogram within the last five years, allowing for patients who have not been screened within the last two years. The targeted medically underserved counties include Angelina, Grimes, Leon, Madison, Nacogdoches, Orange, Robertson, and Trinity counties with a secondary aim to help undeserved women in Brazos and Walker counties needing access to screening and diagnostic care.

Through this project, The Rose will create two dedicated positions, a Sr. Program Manager and a Program Manager, to serve as Patient Navigators to promote services in the target counties, bringing mobile mammography screening to rural communities to increase breast cancer screening and effectively navigate roughly 230 medically underserved women needing access to a continuum of care – screening, diagnostic follow-up and timely treatment.

The Program Managers will serve as community liaisons to provide a continuum of care by: 1) training collaborating partners on how to have successful mobile mammography screening events, 2) bridging gaps in breast health care by connecting community resources/providers to medically underserved women, and 3) reaching health care providers to perform clinical breast exams and to ensure the care continuum between providers for each patient, ideally near their hometown/community.

The primary goal of this project is to increase the availability and access to breast cancer screening for 200 underserved women, age 40 years or older, through 10 Mobile Screening Events with collaborating partners. We will accomplish this by hiring two Program Managers to serve as Patient Navigators whose primary responsibilities will be to: 1. Build upon existing relationships with collaborating partners, identify new resources and establish new community partners; reach 250,000 people/professionals over 24-months; engage healthcare providers to perform breast exams and write orders for mammography screening for eligible clients, thus improving access to care; 2. Promote the CPRIT-funded NRH II project and train collaborating partners to ensure successful mobile mammography screening events;and 3. Navigate 55 of the 200 screened patients needing diagnostic testing/procedures and remove transportation barriers by providing patient gas cards.

The comprehensive NRH II project will expand access to evidence-based secondary and tertiary prevention services related to breast cancer into rural areas that are currently not covered by CPRIT prevention funding. This successful project will have a unique and major impact on the targeted rural counties by removing barriers to care for underserved women, strengthening healthcare safety-net systems within these communities, and providing direct access to care for mammography and diagnostic care that leads to the reduction of breast cancer mortality due to late-stage diagnosis.

Read Less