Daffodil Centre researcher, Associate Professor Eleonora Feletto, is leading a national clinical trial to pilot a co-designed general practice-led intervention to increase participation in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, which was 40% nationwide in 2021-2022.
The study, known as the MAIL, GP and SCALE trial, is a hybrid type 2 effectiveness-implementation intervention trial and is currently recruiting up to 100 General Practices within four Primary Health Network regions across Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.
Intervention informed by evidence and through co-design with General Practice
Currently in Australia, General Practitioners have limited direct involvement in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program despite being uniquely placed to support guideline-appropriate colorectal cancer screening, especially now that the program is open to people from age 45, and there is evidence that their participation can improve uptake.
“Our consultations with doctors and their staff across Australia indicated support for a more active role. They also told us about the challenges they face in their busy practices” said Associate Professor Feletto. “Our co-design process highlighted that for any new interventions to be integrated into the real world, it needed to be straightforward, time-efficient, and supported by incentives and a whole-of-practice approach”.
Understanding what works best to support bowel cancer screening
Associate Professor Feletto and the team have taken the co-design findings and developed a multi-component general practice-led intervention which will be delivered over a 4-month period in 2025 as part of the clinical trial. The findings of the trial will help to inform which combination of individual, health service, and population level interventions are most effective to improve bowel cancer screening outcomes in Australia.
If you’re interested in learning more about the pilot clinical trial or the project, contact the Project Team at bowel@daffodilcentre.org.
