Cancer prevention in rural primary care: An academic-practice partnership

Background: Cancer screening rates are particularly low among poor, minority, and rural women, those segments of the population with the highest cancer mortality risk. Therefore, targeted strategies to increase screening in these population groups are needed. Methods: This paper describes a partnership between the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Family HealthCare of Alabama, a nonprofit health care agency, initiated to promote cancer control and prevention in a predominantly low-income, African-American population in rural western Alabama. The partnership has collaborated in the development of two research proposals designed specifically to evaluate cancer control strategies within the context of routine health care delivery. Results: The UAB/Family HealthCare partnership is conducting two randomized treatment outcome studies funded by the National Cancer Institute to evaluate theory-based patient management strategies to promote patient adherence to screening recommendations for cervical cancer and breast cancer. Conclusions: The success of this academic–practice partnership can be seen in the funded research projects, the enhancement of preventive services in rural primary care, and in the potential to disseminate theory-based cancer control strategies throughout an extended primary care network.