Experts advocate for ‘one-stop-shop’ cancer screening approach to address COVID-related backlogs
Healthcare experts are advocating for a new “one-stop-shop” cancer screening approach, allowing patients to receive all such tests during a single visit to begin addressing COVID-related backlogs.
Numerous studies have charted the pandemic’s outsized impact on these preventive exams, with one March analysis urging for “urgent attention” to address screening deficits. Others have charged that these trends are impacting minority populations who already suffer from worse cancer care outcomes.
In a recent American Journal of Preventive Medicine editorial, experts from several East Coast institutions asked the healthcare field to “reimagine cancer prevention and control.”
“As the U.S. begins to plan for a post-pandemic era, cancer screening must be prioritized with an eye on equity,” lead author Sarah J. Miller, PsyD, with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Department of Population Health Science and Policy, and colleagues wrote April 8. “A return to normal would mean continuing to operate under a flawed system that creates and maintains health inequities. This moment in time presents an opportunity and perhaps an obligation to build a more equitable healthcare system that prioritizes prevention and equity.”
They propose prioritizing screening efforts and moving away from a siloed strategy based around cancer sites. Patients should no longer have to make multiple appointments for breast, lung, prostate, cervical, colorectal, and skin cancer. A one-stop-shop approach would seek to streamline all aspects into one, including education, outreach, risk assessment, imaging, results and follow-up. Providers would need to coordinate with hospitals or clinics to provide radiologic procedures and other exams in a convenient location. And mobile solutions could offer an option for targeting those who live far from imaging centers, they noted.
“The authors acknowledge that system-level changes can require institutional investment, complex coordination between various specialties, and considerable workflow reorganization,” Miller et al. wrote. “However, they believe that it is the responsibility of the institutions and healthcare professionals to assume this burden to help pave the path to cancer prevention, particularly for the most at-risk and vulnerable patients.”
Read more of their arguments, including potential benefits and challenges, in the American College of Preventive Medicine’s official journal here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.