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Colorectal Cancer Screening with Programmatic Mailed FIT

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Screening is proven to reduce mortality from colorectal cancer (CRC), the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of Veterans are unscreened, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this problem, with approximately 1.6 million Veterans due for screening in 2021. To address this still-growing backlog, we have initiated a program to mail Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) kits for CRC screening directly to our Veterans to use in their homes and mail back for analysis; Veteran and provider acceptance have been very positive.

We believe our FIT-first approach, modeled after the successful Kaiser Permanente program, will increase CRC screening adherence, reduce overall costs, increase colonoscopy access for Veterans with the highest risk for CRC, and ultimately save lives.

This innovation is scaling widely with the support of national stakeholders. See more scaling innovations.

Origin:

February 2021, VISN-21

Adoptions:

5 successful, 6 in-progress

Awards and Recognition:

SCOPY Award Winner, American College of Gastroenterology, Diffusion of Excellence Promising Practice, VHA Shark Tank Winner

Partners:

Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Office of Primary Care, Oncology, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service

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