Page 7 - Diversity Initiative

Community Support

Redefining Preventive Care

Dr. Kevin Fiscella 96M (MPH) is deeply committed to reducing the
disparities in health care access, quality, and outcomes for patients
in underserved communities. For several years, he has led an efort

to reach out to key primary care safety net practices and the patients
they serve. Te aim is to identify patients in need of screening for
breast and colorectal cancers and address barriers to screening.
Te project involves multimodal outreach to patients and in-reach
to providers.

Reducing disparity means taking patient centered care seriously.
Te struggle is when the needs go beyond the purely biomedical
to the social, Dr. Fiscella said. I wanted to, as a physician, make

a diferencego where I could make a diference. We shouldnt
be drawing lines on socioeconomic demographics.

In the past six years, Dr. Fiscellas outreach has led to more than
3,000 underserved women receiving mammograms and a similar
number of men and women receiving colorectal cancer
screenings. Te low-cost approach in those safety net practices
includes automated phone calls reminding patients of the need for
Kevin Fiscella 96M (MPH) screenings, verbal prompts by doctors during patient visits, and
Professor, Department of Family Medicine, personal phone calls and mailed alerts from physician ofces.
James P. Wilmot Cancer Center,
Center for Community Health It really comes down to putting the patient frst and thinking about
what the patient needs, Dr. Fiscella said.

1999 About 200 students stage 2006 Ofce for Faculty Development
peaceful sit-in outside presidents and Diversity established.
ofce raising concerns about
diversity issues. 2010 First annual University-wide
Diversity Conference held;
2002 David T. Kearns Center University-wide Presidential
established to expand educational Diversity Awards conferred.
pipeline for low-income, frst
generation, and underrepresented
minority college students.