Media contact: Brianna Hoge
Photography: Steve WoodTwo University of Alabama at Birmingham professors have been awarded $120,000 by the Alabama Department of Public Health’s Cancer Prevention and Control Division to continue their project, “Alabama Colorectal Cancer Screening Project: Colorectal Cancer Screening for Low-Income Residents of Jefferson County.”
Robert Hollis, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery, and Patricia Ajayi-Fox, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, will lead the project during its second consecutive year. This year, the project will run through the end of September 2024 and will provide colonoscopy screenings for low-income and under- and uninsured residents of Jefferson County.
The goal of this project is to reduce health disparities in colonoscopy screening and colorectal cancer outcomes for vulnerable populations in Jefferson County. Patients identified with pathologic findings are referred for further treatment services at UAB.
“During the 2022-2023 award cycle, we completed nearly 100 colonoscopies for low-income, under- or uninsured individuals who predominately came from minority backgrounds,” Hollis said. “One-half of these colonoscopies identified and removed colon polyps, and three early-stage cancers were identified and successfully treated. We look forward to continuing this effort for our local Jefferson County patients this year and hopefully for many years to come.”
Mortgage lending discrimination in the 1930s is still geographically associated with inequities in colon cancer care today. Read more here.
This effort is conducted as a partnership with Cooper Green Mercy Health Services Authority and other local Federally Qualified Health Center clinics. Colonoscopy screening is provided at The Kirklin Clinic by UAB colorectal surgeons and gastroenterologists.
Cooper Green is an affiliate of the UAB Health System and is a full-service ambulatory care facility that includes primary and specialty care clinics, urgent care, physical, occupational and speech therapy, laboratory services, imaging, and pharmacy.
In conjunction with UAB Medicine and the Jefferson County Commission, Cooper Green is set to open a new facility in late 2024.