AMGA Foundation Launches New Initiative to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates
AMGA Foundation, with support from Exact Sciences, will launch a 22-month initiative focused on helping medical groups develop and implement strategies to increase colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates among all average-risk patients age 45-75.
Alexandria, VA – AMGA Foundation, with support from Exact Sciences, will launch a 22-month initiative focused on helping medical groups develop and implement strategies to increase colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates among all average-risk patients age 45-75.
The CRC Screening Best Practices Learning Collaborative initiative is designed to provide a platform for participating organizations to improve their rate of complete CRC screening through the development and implementation of quality improvement projects, best practices sharing, and peer-to-peer learning.
“Only 59% of adults aged 45 years and older are up to date on colorectal cancer screening.1 While the risk of CRC is much lower in adults younger than 50, recent trends have demonstrated an increasing risk of CRC among younger adults, leading to recommendations for screening to start at age 45,” said John Kennedy, MD, AMGA Foundation president and AMGA chief medical officer. “The Collaborative will address screening, definitive diagnosis follow-up, and choice-based, shared decision-making. Importantly, we’ll share the learnings so that more medical groups are aware of the best practices identified by the Collaborative participants.”
The following medical groups and health systems were selected to participate in the collaborative:
Ballad Health Medical Associates
Crystal Run Healthcare
Henry Ford Health
Inova Health System
Intermountain Health
Lehigh Valley Physician Group
North Mississippi Medical Clinic
Northwell Health
Novant Health Medical Group
Ochsner Health
Olmsted Medical Center
Oregon Health & Science University
Premier Medical Associates
Prevea Health
Privia Medical Group (N. Texas)
Southwest Medical Associates
TPMG Northern California
UAB Medicine
UW Medicine Primary Care
WellSpan Medical Group
“Colorectal cancer is one of the most preventable cancers2 , yet approximately 60 million average-risk Americans are not up to date with screening,*1,3, ” said Durado D Brooks, MD, MPH, deputy chief medical officer, screening, for Exact Sciences. “We’re proud to support AMGA’s CRC Screening Best Practices Learning Collaborative to tackle barriers to completion of the full continuum of screening, including social determinants of health, and educate patients and providers on the importance of choice-based screening. Together with participating systems, we aim to improve CRC outcomes for populations across the country.”
Participating organizations will have access to a National Advisory Committee, a panel of subject matter and clinical experts who will guide participants on developing objectives and educational content. In addition, they will have access to resources and activities from the American Cancer Society National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (ACS NCCRT, nccrt.org), a nationally recognized coalition of more than 200 member organizations and an official partner of the CRC Screening Collaborative.
"Proactive, population-based approaches to deliver timely colorectal cancer screening are crucial to saving lives from colorectal cancer,” said Dr. Arif Kamal, chief patient officer at the American Cancer Society. “The ACS NCCRT is proud to lead the 80% in Every Community campaign, which drives the nationally shared goal to reach CRC screening rates of 80% and higher in communities across the nation. It is through partnerships like this that we can catalyze action around colorectal cancer prevention and early detection and save more lives from this disease."
The Collaborative began in May 2023.
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About AMGA Foundation
AMGA Foundation is AMGA’s philanthropic arm that enables medical groups and other organized systems of care to consistently improve health and health care. AMGA Foundation serves as a catalyst, connector, and collaborator for translating the evidence of what works best in improving health and health care in everyday practice. Learn more at amga.org/foundation.
About AMGA
AMGA is a trade association leading the transformation of healthcare in America. Representing multispecialty medical groups and integrated systems of care, we advocate, educate, innovate, and empower our members to deliver the next level of high performance health. AMGA is the national voice promoting awareness of medical groups’ recognized excellence in the delivery of coordinated, high-quality, cost-effective care. More than 175,000 physicians practice in our member organizations, delivering care to one in three Americans. Learn more at amga.org.
Footnotes:
*Based on 2022 USA single year census estimates for ages 45-85 inclusive and the percentage of unscreened subjects. Does not account for variable screening rates across age ranges.
References:
1 ACS. Colorectal cancer facts and figures 2023-2025. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2023. https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/colorectal-cancer-facts-and-figures/colorectal-cancer-facts-and-figures-2023.pdf
2 Itzkowitz SH. Incremental advances in excremental cancer detection tests. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2009; 101(18):1225-1227.
3 United States Census Bureau. Annual Estimates of the Resident Population by Single Year of Age and Sex for the United States: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2022 (NC-EST2022-AGESEX-RES). Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-national-detail.html