The Right FIT: A Culturally and Community Informed Approach to Increasing Colorectal Cancer Screening In Adults Under 50 at A Community Health Center

Project Summary: This project seeks to improve FIT-based colorectal cancer screening rates in low-risk patients under 50 seen at Bowdoin Street Health Center using a community-based participatory approach. A team of staff members who serve as community representatives have been meeting regularly to design, iterate, and test educational tools and outreach workflows that are culturally informed and enhanced by technology (texting). The next phase of this project involves implementing the entire workflow from initial outreach to test completion in increasingly larger groups of patients to have the opportunity to seek user feedback and refine the process. Throughout the research process, we spend time reflecting on the process of doing participatory research and have begun designing a set of guidelines that can support future community-engaged research at our health center and beyond.

Project Lead: Talya Salant