Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in America. Dr. Jason Dominitz, executive director of VA\u2019s National Gastroenterology and Hepatology Program, knows that it doesn\u2019t need to be. According to Dominitz, the majority of colon cancers can be cured if detected early.<\/p>\n
Most colon cancer screenings in VA are done with either colonoscopy or a fecal immunochemical test (FIT). FIT is a non-invasive test where Veterans collect a tiny stool sample in the comfort of their own home and mail it back to VA for analysis. However, hundreds of thousands of Veterans are unscreened or behind on screenings, and the COVID-19 pandemic only increased the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoutine colonoscopies came to halt in March 2020 and have not yet fully recovered,\u201d said Dominitz. \u201cWe also can\u2019t hand out FIT kits during telemedicine visits,\u201d he explained, highlighting one of the major issues facing Veterans and their physicians.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there was a solution: Mailed FIT kits for Veterans to use in their homes.<\/p>\n
Dominitz trained at Durham VA in health services research and now works at Seattle VA<\/a>. He was exposed to the idea of Mailed FIT after Kaiser Permanente successfully rolled out a similar program.<\/p>\n He partnered with staff from VISN 21<\/a> and other VA program offices, such as Primary Care, Laboratory Medicine and the National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. This approach, while not replacing current screening efforts, makes screening easy while simultaneously increasing colonoscopy access for Veterans with the highest risk for colon cancer.<\/p>\n \u201cMailed FIT separates colon cancer screening from the in-person visit and meets the needs for Veterans who don\u2019t come in on a regular or frequent basis,\u201d Dominitz said. \u201cIt also allows us to transition from an opportunistic approach to screening\u2026 where we have to wait for the Veteran to come in\u2026 to an organized approach, ensuring more Veterans have access.\u201d<\/p>\n With help from VHA Diffusion of Excellence<\/a> and the VHA Shark Tank Competition<\/a>, Mailed FIT is now ramping up to serve Veterans across the nation.<\/p>\n Shark Tank identifies frontline employee innovations that promote positive outcomes and improved experiences for Veterans, employees, caregivers and VHA community.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not been an easy process and we couldn\u2019t do it without a wonderful team of dedicated professionals, including Chris Moore,\u201d said Dominitz. Moore is a health systems specialist from VISN 21. \u201cThe fact that there is the ability within VA to take care of a problem on a national, enterprise-level is relatively unique in the US health care system.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to learn more about Mailed FIT and colorectal cancer screening at VA? You can explore their webpage<\/a> on the Diffusion Marketplace to learn more about the techniques and spread of this rapidly growing innovation.<\/p>\n Innovation Heroes is a recurring series from the VHA Innovation Ecosystem, focusing on VA employees who are driving innovation forward and improving the lives of Veterans and fellow VA employees.<\/p>\n Want to become an innovation hero? Visit our website<\/a>, subscribe to our weekly newsletter<\/a>, and visit VA Pathfinder<\/a> to learn more about our opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in America. Dr. Jason Dominitz, executive director of VA\u2019s National Gastroenterology and Hepatology Program, knows that it doesn\u2019t need to be. According to Dominitz, the majority of colon cancers can be cured if detected early. Most colon cancer screenings in VA are done with either […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colon-cancer","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7585"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7593,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585\/revisions\/7593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Increasing access on a national scale<\/h2>\n
![<\/a>Dr. Jason Dominitz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nFortunately, there was a solution: Mailed FIT kits for Veterans to use in their homes.<\/p>\nAn innovative approach to colon cancer screenings<\/h2>\nDominitz trained at Durham VA in health services research and now works at Seattle VA<\/a>. He was exposed to the idea of Mailed FIT after Kaiser Permanente successfully rolled out a similar program.<\/p>\nHe partnered with staff from VISN 21<\/a> and other VA program offices, such as Primary Care, Laboratory Medicine and the National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. This approach, while not replacing current screening efforts, makes screening easy while simultaneously increasing colonoscopy access for Veterans with the highest risk for colon cancer.<\/p>\n\u201cMailed FIT separates colon cancer screening from the in-person visit and meets the needs for Veterans who don\u2019t come in on a regular or frequent basis,\u201d Dominitz said. \u201cIt also allows us to transition from an opportunistic approach to screening\u2026 where we have to wait for the Veteran to come in\u2026 to an organized approach, ensuring more Veterans have access.\u201d<\/p>\nIncreasing access on a national scale<\/h2>\nWith help from VHA Diffusion of Excellence<\/a> and the VHA Shark Tank Competition<\/a>, Mailed FIT is now ramping up to serve Veterans across the nation.<\/p>\nShark Tank identifies frontline employee innovations that promote positive outcomes and improved experiences for Veterans, employees, caregivers and VHA community.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s not been an easy process and we couldn\u2019t do it without a wonderful team of dedicated professionals, including Chris Moore,\u201d said Dominitz. Moore is a health systems specialist from VISN 21. \u201cThe fact that there is the ability within VA to take care of a problem on a national, enterprise-level is relatively unique in the US health care system.\u201d<\/p>\nWant to learn more about Mailed FIT and colorectal cancer screening at VA? You can explore their webpage<\/a> on the Diffusion Marketplace to learn more about the techniques and spread of this rapidly growing innovation.<\/p>\nInnovation Heroes is a recurring series from the VHA Innovation Ecosystem, focusing on VA employees who are driving innovation forward and improving the lives of Veterans and fellow VA employees.<\/p>\nWant to become an innovation hero? Visit our website<\/a>, subscribe to our weekly newsletter<\/a>, and visit VA Pathfinder<\/a> to learn more about our opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in America. Dr. Jason Dominitz, executive director of VA\u2019s National Gastroenterology and Hepatology Program, knows that it doesn\u2019t need to be. According to Dominitz, the majority of colon cancers can be cured if detected early. Most colon cancer screenings in VA are done with either […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colon-cancer","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7585"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7593,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585\/revisions\/7593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Dominitz_r1-4.jpg\"){kind=link}