Public health approaches and barriers to educating providers about hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome

Angela M. Trepanier*, Laura Supplee, Lindsey Blakely, Jenna McLosky, Debra Duquette

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services implemented and evaluated two initiatives designed to enhance provider knowledge of patients appropriate for breast and/or ovarian cancer genetic risk assessment and hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) syndrome testing. The first initiative targeted select providers who had diagnosed patients meeting HBOC risk criteria. Specifically, the initiative used 2008–2009 state cancer registry data to identify all providers who had diagnosed breast cancers in women ď50 years of age, male breast cancers, and ovarian cancers in four health systems with newly established cancer genetics clinics. Using a method coined bidirectional reporting (BDR), reports highlighting how many of these cases each provider had seen were generated and mailed. Reports on 475 cancers (9.5% of the 5005 cases statewide meeting criteria) were sent to 69 providers with information about how and why to refer such patients for genetic counseling. Providers who received a report were contacted to assess whether the reports increased awareness or resulted in action (genetic counseling/referral). Based on the few responses received, despite multiple attempts to contact, and attrition rate, it is not possible to ascertain the impact of this initiative on providers. However the project resulted in the MDHHS identifying which providers see the largest proportion of at-risk patients, creating an opportunity to target those providers with HBOC education efforts. The second initiative involved creating and broadly disseminating an online, interactive case-based educational module to increase awareness and referral decisions for HBOC using high-and low-risk patient scenarios. A total of 1835 unique users accessed the module in a one year. Collectively the users viewed topic pages 2724 times and the interactive case studies 1369 times. Point of care tools (fact sheets) were viewed 1624 times and downloaded 764 times. Satisfaction among the subset of users applying for continuing medical education credit was high. The online educational module had a much broader reach than the bidirectional reporting initiative but to a self-selected audience. Combining targeted and broad-based provider education efforts may be a better way to increase HBOC awareness in the target audience, starting with those providers seeing the largest proportion of patients at risk.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number19
JournalHealthcare (Switzerland)
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2016

Funding

Acknowledgments: This publication was supported by the Cooperative Agreement Numbers 5U38GD00054 and 51U58DP003798 from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The authors are appreciative of the significant contributions of the MDHHS staff (including Sarah Mange and Beth Anderson) and the MCSP staff that assisted with the bidirectional reporting (including Glenn Copeland, Georgetta Alverson, Georgia Spivak and Wendy Stinnett). The authors are also thankful to the online CME module planning committee and developers (including Kate Reed, Summer Cox, Amy Mroch, Katrina Trivers, Tuya Pal, Lindsay Dohany, Karen Lewis, Suzanne Schott, and Therese Nissen).

Keywords

  • Genetic counseling
  • Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC)
  • Provider education
  • Public health initiative

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health Information Management
  • Health Policy
  • Health Informatics
  • Leadership and Management

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Public health approaches and barriers to educating providers about hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this