Easy Ways You Can Support Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month in March 2017

[tweet “… easy and quick tips to support the cause and engage with your facility’s patients.”] Once again, we are putting a spotlight on this month’s national health observance—which for March 2017 is Colorectal Cancer Month—so that busy hospital and clinic marketing teams can get some easy and quick tips to support the cause and engage with their facility’s patients. Normally we wouldn’t be as explicit about previous month’s observances, however, there are some striking consistencies what we wrote last month about supporting American Heart Month. The first relates to why we tailored this and last month’s content for bariatric surgery centers. Most simply a significant percentage of partners are bariatric surgery centers, although we provide patient management solutions for all types of hospitals and clinics. Thus, we are again positioning our tips for bariatric surgery center marketing and patient management—however, they can easily be used by general healthcare providers and many other specialties or centers of excellence.

Linking Bariatric Surgery with Colorectal Cancer

The second consistency may seem redundant if you read last month’s blog, but we assure you, it’s not! However, as with heart disease, there are very real connections between colorectal cancer and bariatric surgery (which includes patients with obesity and diabetes). And like we said last month, don’t just take our word for it! According to the National Cancer Institute’s “Cancer Fact Sheet”,

“People who are obese are slightly (about 30%) more likely to develop colorectal cancer than normal-weight people”

and

“A higher BMI is associated with increased risks of colon and rectal cancers in both men and in women, but the increases are higher in men than in women.”

  Additionally, the NCI said “the United States had the highest fractions attributable to overweight/obesity for colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, and postmenopausal breast cancer and “that obesity may worsen several aspects of cancer survivorship.” It should not be difficult see to detect a pattern: Untreated or poorly managed patients with obesity and diabetes are at greater risk for developing other health problems that either can be prevented or treated with bariatric surgery.

Promote Your Bariatric Surgery Center’s Colorectal Cancer Programs

[tweet “…your bariatric surgery center can modify or repurpose existing programs, content and collateral.”] The third consistency is practically a facsimile of what we wrote last month about how your bariatric surgery center can modify or repurpose existing programs, online content and print collateral that relate to lifestyle improvements that can directly or indirectly improve heart health. This includes several suggestions from the National Health Information Center’s American Heart Month Toolkit such as:

• Better weight management

• Controlling cholesterol and blood pressure

• Drinking alcohol only in moderation

• Quitting smoking and avoiding secondhand smoke

Create Colorectal Cancer Screening Campaigns

The Centers for Disease Control has created the Screen for Life: National Colorectal Cancer Action Campaign which was designed to inform men and women aged 50 years and older about the importance of having regular colorectal cancer screening tests. Unfortunately, as the CDC explains, “about one-third of adults aged 50 or older (about 22 million people)—the age group at greatest risk of developing colorectal cancer—have not been screened as recommended.” The CDC provides virtually everything you need to develop a colorectal cancer screening campaign, including:

• Buttons and Badges

• Campaign Research

• Colorectal Cancer Quiz

• Personal Screening Stories

• Print Materials

• Public Service Announcements

• Resource Toolkit

• “Screening Helps Prevent Colorectal Cancer” Infographic

• Social Media Posts and Images

Another way to reach patients is to explore automated phone calls and text messages, which we very recently explored in our most recent blog, “Automated Phone Calls and Texts Can Improve Patient Outcomes.” (In fact, one of the examples mentioned was a study about how automated phone calls got 578 patients to schedule colon cancer screenings, which led to the diagnosis of pre-cancerous polyps in an estimated 145 patients…25 percent rate of detection!) [tweet “Another way to reach patients is to explore automated phone calls and text messages…”]

Use Social Media for #ColorectalCancerAwarenessMonth

Along with using social media to share and find useful information related to American Heart Month (including trending hashtags such as #colorectalcancerawarenessmonth and #80by18 and #getscreened), it’s also an excellent opportunity to expand your networks. For instance, if you don’t already, here are some worthy Twitter accounts you might want to follow:

• @preventcancer, the official Twitter page for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, the only U.S. nonprofit organization solely devoted to cancer prevention and early detection.

• @CDCgov, the official Twitter page for the Centers for Disease Control

Not sure what to post in your Tweets (or on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram)? The CDC has created a list of suggested social posts and images that can get you in the right direction!

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Guideway Care – Sequence To Activation proudly supports Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. For more about our company and our patient management platform Sequence, please contact us.