Episode #44: Increasing CRC Screening Rates in Latino Communities (awareness and access to care are key to success)

Gastro Broadcast

For Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, Dr. Fred Rosenberg interviews Dr. Abdul Saied Calvino, a surgical oncologist at Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence, Rhode Island and assistant professor of surgical oncology at the Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. Dr. Calvino helped develop a program tailored specifically to the Latino community in an effort to increase education and access to colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Spanish-speaking patient navigators were hired to help educate people about insurance concerns, guide them through the health care system and the process of getting a screening colonoscopy. The national colonoscopy completion rate for Hispanic adults is between 40 and 50 percent, yet Dr. Calvino's program saw a colonoscopy completion rate of 85 percent among both men and women. Join Dr. Rosenberg and Dr. Calvino as they explore how independent GI practices can implement similar programs to improve education and outreach in their own communities and increase CRC screening rates among Latino men and women. Produced by Andrew Sousa and Hayden Margolis for Steadfast Collaborative, LLC Mixed and mastered by Hayden Margolis Gastro Broadcast, Episode 44