Enabling Community-Based Cervical Cancer Screening

Existing cervical cancer screening methods are unsuitable for low-resource settings that lack the required infrastructure, equipment, and trained personnel, and do not consider the persistent sociocultural access barriers that exacerbate cancer disparities. There is a pressing and unmet need for a rapid screening test that is designed with real consideration of the end-user and her community’s social structure and cultural context, in order to address specific needs, increase screening coverage, and ensure linkage to follow-up care. The goal of this project is to develop a rapid diagnostic test for human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes cervical cancer, to enable community-based screening. We are working in partnership with a Hispanic community in Lake County, the county with the highest cervical cancer mortality rates in Indiana, and engaging community health workers, medical providers, community-based organizations, and policymakers in a participatory design process to inform both the technology itself and its implementation strategy in this community.

  1. Rodriguez, N.M. (2021). Participatory Innovation for HPV Screening to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer. The Lancet Global Health, 9(5), e582-e583. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30522-2
  2. Casanova, F., Knaul, F.M., Rodriguez, N.M. (2021). Harvesting Health Knowledge: Breast Cancer Perceptions in the South Florida Latinx Farmworker Community. Qualitative Health Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323211003542
  3. Rodriguez, N.M., Casanova, F., Pages, G., Claure, L., Pedreira, M., Touchton, M., & Knaul, F. (2020). Community-based participatory design of a community health worker breast cancer training intervention for South Florida Latinx farmworkers. PloS one. 15(10), e0240827.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240827
  4. Knaul, F.M.,  Rodriguez, N.M., Arreola-Ornelas H., Olson, J.R. (2019). Cervical Cancer: Lessons Learned from Neglected Tropical Diseases. The Lancet Global Health, 7(3), e299-e300. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30533-3
  5. Velazquez Berumen, A., Jimenez Moyao, G.,  Rodriguez, N.M., lbawi, A.M., Migliore, A., Shulman, L.N. (2018). Defining priority medical devices for cancer management: a WHO initiative. The Lancet Oncology, 19(12), pp.e709-e719. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(18)30658-2
  6. Knaul, F.M, Arreola-Ornelas, H., Rodriguez, N.M., Mendez-Carniado, O., Kwete, X.J., Puentes-Rosas, E., Bhadelia, A. (2018). Avoidable mortality: the core of the global cancer divide. Journal of Global Oncology, 4, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1200/JGO.17.00190
  7. Knaul, F. M., Rodriguez, N. M., Bhadelia, A., Garcia, P., Atun, R. (2018). Progress on women’s health—lessons and opportunities for global cancer control. The Lancet Global Health, 6, S9-S10. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30085-8
  8. Rodriguez, N.M., Brant, J. M., Pendharkar, D., Arreola-Ornelas, H., Bhadelia, A., Lopes, G., Knaul, F. M. (2017). Thinking Differently in Global Health in Oncology Using a Diagonal Approach: Harnessing Similarities, Improving Education, and Empowering an Alternative https://doi.org/10.1200/EDBK_175246
  9. Rodriguez, N.M., Wong, W. S., Liu, L., Dewar, R., Klapperich, C. M. (2016). A Fully Integrated Paperfluidic Molecular Diagnostic Chip for the Extraction, Amplification, and Detection of Nucleic Acids from Clinical Samples. Lab on a Chip, 16(4), 753-763. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5lc01392e

Funding Sources

  • National Cancer Institute
  • Indiana CTSI Community Health Partnerships Trailblazer Award
Other Research Projects
Improving HIV Testing for High-Risk Populations
Supporting the Health of People Experiencing Homelessness
Empowering Community Health Workers to Achieve Health Equity

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