A new cancer screening tool helps patients understand their risk and personalize care
The Prevention4Me assessment is free and offered to every patient at Providence’s Comprehensive Breast Center in Everett. The program will expand to other locations within the Providence family of organizations over the next few years.
The Everett-based Providence Comprehensive Breast Center is the first program in Providence’s seven-state health system to launch a free, personalized cancer screening and early detection system. Called Prevention4Me, the survey-based assessment has already proven integral to proactive early cancer detection, as well as determining eligibility for enhanced breast cancer screening and/or genetic testing.
To develop the tool, Providence partnered with a division of the health system called Providence Genomics. The assessment is free for any Providence Comprehensive Breast Center patient having a mammogram between ages 25 and 80.
How it works
After scheduling a mammogram, patients are offered an opportunity to complete the Prevention4Me assessment via email prior to their mammogram appointment. After finishing the assessment, which asks questions about personal and family health history and takes less than 10 minutes, patients instantly receive a personalized cancer risk assessment and details summarizing next steps, including the opportunity to receive saliva-based genetic testing if eligible, which is covered by most health insurance plans. Patients then go to their mammogram appointments as scheduled.
Why it’s important
Prevention4Me is a supplement to annual mammograms, which can help patients and their health-care team create a more personalized care plan to support early detection and even cancer prevention. Based on the personal assessment results, patients may be eligible for additional breast cancer imaging – like Contrast-Enhanced Mammography (CEM) or breast MRI – and/or genetic testing to identify inherited risk for breast and many other cancers. After the assessment, patients only need to provide updates or changes to their personal and family health at future mammogram appointments. It also assesses eligibility for genetic testing according to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines to identify possible inherited risk of breast and other cancers. Once an assessment is complete, patients receive a personalized risk assessment, outlining steps they and their health care team can use to create a customized care plan if determined high-risk.
“For many people, their care will remain the same. But for some high-risk patients, their health-care provider might recommend more frequent screening or other approaches to early cancer detection and risk reduction,” said Laura Kendrick, 51, a breast cancer survivor who can speak firsthand about the importance of risk assessment and early detection.
Kendrick feels lucky that she is doing well, now knows her risk for other cancers and is benefitting from a personalized care plan. “With the launch of Prevention4Me, Providence is helping provide more people access to enhanced cancer screening, regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances or ability to pay,” said Kendrick. “At least one out of every eight women who come through the Providence Comprehensive Breast Center for mammography are at risk of developing breast cancer in their lifetimes. With that in mind, it’s rewarding to know we’re helping save and extend lives through better screening, genetic testing and enhanced imaging. It also feels great knowing Providence Comprehensive Breast Center in Everett is the only health system in Washington state currently offering this level of cancer screening.”
Community support, access expansion and more information
To help provide the full scope of services needed to support the launch of Prevention4Me, the program is funded with generous support from Pink Ribbon Row and the Providence General Foundation.
“The $116,000 these two organizations raised and donated for Contrast-Enhanced Mammography was critical to allowing us to round out our comprehensive suite of breast imaging tools to enhance patient care,” said Brandon Y. Liu, M.D., medical director of Providence Comprehensive Breast Center.
Later this year, the health system plans to broaden access to Prevention4Me by offering the screening tool to mammography patients at Providence Medical Group clinics in Mill Creek and Monroe.
About Providence Swedish
Providence Swedish has served the Puget Sound region since the first Providence hospital opened in Seattle in 1877 and the first Swedish hospital opened in 1910. The two organizations affiliated in 2012 and today comprise the largest health care delivery system in Western Washington, with 22,000 caregivers, eight hospitals and 244 clinics throughout Western Washington – from Everett to Centralia. A not-for-profit family of organizations, Providence Swedish provides more than $545 million in community benefit in the Puget Sound region each year. The health system offers a comprehensive range of services and specialty and subspecialty care in a number of clinical areas, including cancer, cardiovascular health, neurosciences, orthopedics, digestive health and women’s and children’s care.
About Providence
Providence is a nonprofit provider of healthcare services in the Western United States, and is headquartered in Renton, Washington. Providence’s Well Being Trust is a national foundation dedicated to advancing mental, social and spiritual well-being.