Using Learning Collaborative Teams to Address the COVID-19 Cancer-Screening Backlog

This research poster was presented at the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) Practice-Based Research Network Conference in June 2022. It presents the results of the Alliance's first learning collaborative, which supported member centres in equitably clearing their cancer screening backlogs built up through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ten teams from Community Health Centres and three teams from Aboriginal Health Access Centres participated in this learning collaborative, which ran from September 2021 through APril 2022. The learning collaborative was structured into three learning sessions, a sharing session, and four action phases. Learning sessions covered the College of Family Physicians of Canada's Practice Improvement Essentials (PIE) content. During the action phases, teams received coaching support and tested their change ideas through Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles. The sharing session enabled particpants to discuss their progress and challenges. At the end of the learning collaborative, a captone event was held for members to present their successes as well as lessons learned.

The learning collaborative was evaluated according to its impact on cancer screening rates and participants' understanding of quality improvement (QI) methodology. Overall, cancer screening rates at the end of the learning collaborative exceeded their pre-pandemic levels, and nearly all participants agreed that the learning sessions improved their knowledge of QI.

Check out the poster for more detailed results, some examples of change ideas used by the participating teams, and sampe quotes from interviews conducted with participants after the collaborative had ended.