The Office of Health Equity Research (OHER) is excited to announce it has awarded funds to address disparities in cancer screening rates in New Haven to a coalition of community and academic partners through its Community Health Equity Accelerator initiative. Led by general internist Ilana Richman, MD, MHS, a community-academic partnered research team of staff, practitioners, and faculty from Cornell Scott Hill Health Center and Yale School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine will receive a pilot award to develop and implement a multilevel community-based intervention to increase completion of outstanding colorectal cancer screening orders. This research is supported by funding from Yale Cancer Center.
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The Office of Health Equity Research Announces Recipients of the Community Health Equity Accelerator’s Funds to Address Disparities in Cancer Screening in New Haven
Building on Cornell Scott Hill Health Center's existing patient communication infrastructure, the team will develop a multilevel intervention that includes patient reminders via tiered SMS messaging and mailed letters, clinician reminders through electronic health record alerts, and systematic population-based monitoring of patients with outstanding screening orders or abnormal test results requiring follow-up.
The team will identify optimal communication approaches through A/B testing of different messaging strategies, developed in partnership with a patient advisory panel. The expected outcomes include improved screening participation, enhanced systems-based practices, and the development of a low-touch, scalable intervention model. The 12-month project will begin in fall 2025.
The proposal from Cornell Scott Hill Health Center and Yale School of Medicine researchers will benefit patients in New Haven through tested communications to individuals in need of colorectal cancer screening by ensuring that they get screened and obtain follow-up care as needed. This partnership is a fine example of how inequities can be reduced by deploying evidence-based strategies at multiple levels of intervention- patient, community, healthcare providers and the health care system.
Frances PadillaGuiding Coalition member, CHEA
The Community Health Equity Accelerator (CHEA) initiative was launched in 2022 to unite leaders across multiple domains to tackle health equity issues in New Haven and beyond. This initiative brings together diverse experts from community organizations, Yale-affiliated faculty and staff, and health system and hospital leadership to work together and address health issues that have a significant impact on New Haven communities. CHEA was developed to champion community-responsive programs and scholarship that directly address the health needs of our city, with an emphasis on health inequity. Each funded cycle focuses on addressing a different community-identified health priority through an evidence-based, multilevel intervention implemented simultaneously at the individual, family, provider, community, and/or health system levels.
In 2024, the CHEA Guiding Coalition awarded its first grant to a community-academic team implementing a multilevel intervention to address disparities in health outcomes for pediatric asthma patients. Comprised of the Hispanic Federation Inc. of Connecticut, Center for Children’s Advocacy (CCA), and faculty from Yale School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Sections of General Pediatrics and Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergy, Immunology and Sleep Medicine, the team developed and implemented a new clinical pathway and associated innovative community health worker program. This project will conclude in November 2025.
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