BCSC Funded by PCORI to Develop Prioritization Toolkit for Breast Imaging Facilities During COVID-19 Pandemic

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic many radiology facilities canceled or reduced services such as breast cancer screening and surveillance imaging, and some diagnostic imaging and breast biopsies. Facilities across the US report that some women are canceling or postponing appointments for fear of contracting COVID-19, exposing high-risk family members, or due to loss of insurance. Radiology facilities are facing challenges to accommodating backlogged services and new service requests.

The Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) received enhancement funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to rapidly leverage BCSC registry data to provide information to radiology facilities by developing and deploying a “prioritization toolkit” that will prioritize women who need imminent breast imaging or biopsy and will provide messaging content that addresses women’s perceived barriers to imaging and diagnostic follow up. In the next year we will collect new data to determine if facilities prioritized women according to our suggested toolkit strategies and how outcomes vary according to prioritization approaches. We will update our toolkit based on this new evidence. We plan to rapidly disseminate our prioritization toolkit by providing it to all BCSC facilities, posting it to the BCSC website and social media, and publishing our findings.