Health Equity

Our Screening Has Meaning campaign speaks to multicultural audiences about the importance of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Its goal is to socialize and normalize conversations around CRC in community gathering places.

We collaborate with the National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) to improve cancer screening accessibility. This engagement includes efforts to examine the cancer incidence in Flint, Michigan, and to offer education about prevention and early detection. With NMQF, we hosted two Flint Community Cancer Screening and Health Fairs.

We sponsor the American Indian Cancer Foundation’s Blue Beads Day campaign, a culturally concordant, national CRC awareness campaign for Native American communities. Blue Beads Day emphasizes the importance of early detection and reminds people to stay up to date on their cancer screenings.

We work to raise awareness about the impact of Cologuard^® for underserved populations and those disproportionately impacted by CRC. As part of this, we lead or contribute to several studies to understand inequities, barriers, and perspectives in CRC screening. Topics include:

1. Examining socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in CRC screening, including awareness and uptake
2. Using a nationally representative sample to study psychosocial barriers that contribute to a lack of urgency around CRC screening
3. Demonstrating the value of Cologuard for patients who use Medicaid
4. Exploring ways to improve access and adherence to CRC screening and Cologuard within the Alaska Native community
5. Understanding screening behaviors among people with limited English language proficiency

Cologuard^® is intended to screen adults 45 years of age and older who are at average risk for colorectal cancer. Do not use if you have had adenomas, have inflammatory bowel disease and certain hereditary syndromes, or a personal or family history of colorectal cancer. Cologuard is not a replacement for colonoscopy in high risk patients. Cologuard performance in adults ages 45-49 is estimated based on a large clinical study of patients 50 and older. False positives and false negatives can occur. Rx only. ©Exact Sciences Corporation. All rights reserved.

We work closely with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), which focus on underserved or disadvantaged areas and populations. The centers offer comprehensive primary care services on a sliding fee scale to enable wide access. We are improving our collaborations with FQHCs by creating assistance programs, engaging patients in their preferred language when possible, and understanding the health literacy levels of their populations so that we can better meet needs.

We believe everyone should have access to the best healthcare options. We created our Patient Assistance Program to help certain patients receive our tests at no cost. Those patients include people facing challenges with insurance coverage or those whose incomes are at or below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level.

We continue to focus on removing barriers to Cologuard testing. We have identified ways in which we may be able to increase adherence by lowering the literacy level of our materials, creating semi-wordless instructions, and translating materials into additional languages to aid comprehension.

We design our clinical trials to help ensure diversity in studied patient populations. We measure patient demographics across studies against the 2020 U.S. Census and ensure a geographic mix of trial sites. Informed consent materials are delivered in both English and Spanish, with other languages or short-format consents available.

As an advocacy collaborator, we support the No One Missed campaign. This community-led effort, driven by LUNGevity Foundation, works to build awareness of biomarker testing as a crucial part of every non-small-cell lung cancer diagnosis. Since its launch in 2021, the campaign has reached millions of people in the African American and Hispanic communities with greater education about the importance of comprehensive biomarker testing in lung cancer care.

Our FOCUS health equity program provides grant funding to community health organizations, health foundations, public health organizations, and advocacy groups working to increase access to CRC screening and to reduce barriers to follow-up colonoscopy. Awardees use the funds to implement evidence-based strategies proven to increase colorectal cancer screening rates.

We are training community health workers on CRC disease states, current screening recommendations, and options for treatment. These workers play a critical role in bridging care gaps for patients who are marginalized or otherwise at risk.

As a responsible corporate partner, we collaborate with key grassroots organizations in communities with an Exact Sciences presence. We work to understand each community’s unique needs and support health advocates within communities to advance screening education.

We have formed several groups to explore additional engagement, including a Voice of Patient team to amplify patients’ point in our clinical trials and a Health Equity Advisory Board to guide our approach to equitably serving populations.

We are working with the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ) to engage health systems in addressing screening disparities, with a focus on rural populations. The project convenes several health systems to work together on screening access challenges, with Exact Sciences as a tactical collaborator.

We often collaborate with health systems when they seek to address disparities in care in specific populations. Many health systems are exploring bringing care, especially screening, closer to where individuals live and work via screening health fairs, community events, mobile clinics, and other activities. Exact Sciences can provide a wide array of support for these events, such as multicultural educational materials and on-site engagement with providers who can order CRC screening.