Community Outreach and Engagement

Mayo Clinic Rochester, Rochester MN

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT: ABSTRACT The mission of the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center (MCCCC) is to foster, facilitate and coordinate bi-directional community outreach and engagement activities across our three regional geographic catchment areas in MN, FL, and AZ. These catchment areas include: 1) the 65 contiguous counties in MN, WI, and IA emanating from the Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN campus (MCR), inclusive of counties served by the Mayo Clinic Health System (MCHS), a community-based rural healthcare delivery system; 2) the 9 counties surrounding the Jacksonville, FL campus (MCF); and 3) the most populous county of AZ containing the Phoenix and Scottsdale, AZ campuses (MCA). COE activities are coordinated by Enterprise Deputy Director Folakemi Odedina, PhD with three Associate Directors who lead COE at each site (MCR: Gladys Asiedu, PhD; MCF: Janice Krieger, PhD; MCA: Annie Rusk, MD). COE has been fully restructured with new leadership, development of community cancer surveillance dashboards with extensive data analytics, formation of site-specific Community Advisory Boards (CABs) representative of regional populations, and deep bi-directional engagement between communities and MCCCC Research Programs. COE activities in MCR/MCHS focus on rural communities and cancers in this region with a higher incidence or poorer outcome including colorectal, pancreatic, uterine, liver, kidney, and skin (melanoma) cancers, and a focus on the cancer risk factors of sun exposure and tobacco usage. Activities in MCA focus on colorectal, liver, uterine, and kidney cancers and the cancer risk factors of physical inactivity, sun exposure, tobacco use, and healthcare access. COE efforts at MCF focus on rural communities and pancreas, liver, breast, prostate, and uterine cancers, and the cancer risk factors of obesity, physical inactivity, sun exposure, tobacco use, low screening rates, and healthcare access. Over the last four years, COE established new partnerships with >200 community organizations; engaged communities in evidence-based interventions (EBIs); provided cancer screening to 450 individuals and social determinants of health navigation for 8400 individuals; and facilitated access and accrual for 909 individuals to interventional treatment clinical trials. Noteworthy was a significant increase in accrual of all populations to interventional treatment trials (MCR/MCHS: 240% increase; MCA: 330%; MCF: 494%) with rural cancer patients accounting for 38% and racial/ethnic minorities accounting for 11% of therapeutic interventional accruals across the Mayo Clinic enterprise. The COE Specific Aims include: 1) employing cancer trends, community indicators and CABs, bidirectional engagement, and evaluation to ensure that MCCCC research priorities address community needs; 2) implementing EBIs and fostering policy initiatives to reduce the cancer burden in all catchment areas; and 3) facilitating MCCCC research and clinical trials in all populations and sharing knowledge between communities and MCCCC investigators and programs.