Program:
Patient Services
- Budget:
-
$4,100,000
- Category:
-
Health Care
- Population Served:
-
Female Adults
Program Description:
Through the National Mammography Program (NMP), NBCF partners with medical facilities across the country to provide free mammograms and diagnostic breast care services to underserved women. The NMP network has worked with over 115 medical facilities and now includes 88 medical facilities in all 50 states. Through patient navigation programs at medical facilities within their network, NBCF is able to promote early detection procedures to those that need it most. Patient navigation is a proactive approach to helping patients overcome the barriers of cost, fear, and misinformation surrounding a disease and its prevention.
Program Long-Term Success:
NBCF has provided over 340,000 patient services since 2005 though their network of hospitals. With rising healthcare costs, many uninsured or underinsured women cannot afford the cost of diagnostic tests. By providing free mammograms and breast care services to underserved women, NBCF will increase the early detection of breast cancer which will lead to higher survival rates.
Program Short-Term Success:
In 2012, NBCF provided over 150,000 patient services to uninsured, underinsured, and underserved women.
Program Success Monitored by:
The program success is monitored by a formal results form created specifically for the National Mammography Program that facilities in their network submit to them every 6 months. The form monitors costs, services provided, and requests feedback about challenges and successes of the program. A database has been created that helps to monitor changes and patterns in funding usage and services that are provided.
Program Success Examples:
<div>NMP funding has helped to create new Navigator Programs in Kingman, AZ; Dallas, TX; Brattleboro, VT; Bridgeport, WV; Scarborough, ME. The success is measured through the great impact that navigators have in reaching out to underserved women in communities to give them access to lifesaving breast care services. </div><div> </div><div>Facilities within the NMP continue to report that because of grant funding from NBCF, they are able to help women in their areas that did not qualify for state or local funds to access mammography services. Any life that is saved is an example of the success of the program. <br /></div>
Program:
Education and Awareness Programs
- Budget:
-
$6,800,000
- Category:
-
Health Care
- Population Served:
-
Female Adults
-
Adults
Program Description:
<div>NBCF's Early Detection Plan is an interactive tool both online and available as an iPhone App. The Early Detection Plan reminds women to schedule routine breast self-exams, clinical breast exams, and mammograms.</div><div> </div><div>MyNBCF (www.MyNBCF.org) is an online support community that has been described by its members as "an avenue to share, vent, cry and laugh." The community provides breast cancer patients, survivors, and their loved ones a safe place to discuss breast cancer. </div><div> </div><div>Beyond the Shock is a step-by-step guide to understanding the diagnosis of breast cancer presented in an interactive online website. It allows those affected by breast cancer to learn about breast cancer, ask and answer questions, and hear inspirational stories from breast cancer survivors.</div><div> </div><div>The Breast Health Education Program is a new program launched in 2012 that provides breast cancer education and early detection services to women at community outreaches across the country. NBCF educates women about the importance of early detection and informs them about resources that are available in their community. Women are given the opportunity to receive free clinical breast exams from nurse practitioners. <br /></div>
Program Long-Term Success:
Through education and awareness programs, NBCF educates women about their breast health and emphasizes the need to take care of themselves. These programs remind and encourage women to schedule their breast exams. Ultimately, long-term success for the program is measured by decreased mortality rates in women with breast cancer through early detection and treatment.
Program Short-Term Success:
Women served by the programs often express the benefits they have received. The success of the program is evident in women reporting that the programs reminded them to get their mammograms and help educate them when they or a loved one was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Program Success Monitored by:
Program success is continuously monitored by the number of women that engage in NBCF's awareness and education programs, and through user feedback about the effectiveness of the programs provided.
Program Success Examples:
One woman stated, "The Early Detection Plan helped my cousin. She caught her cancer early and is currently undergoing treatment. [The] outlook is good." Another woman stated, "It [the Early Detection Plan] saved my best friend's life."
Program:
Breast Cancer Research
- Budget:
-
$1,100,000
- Category:
-
Diseases, Disorders & Medical Disciplines
- Population Served:
-
Female Adults
Program Description:
NBCF strives to help find the cure for breast cancer by working with some of the finest scientists in the world. Funding is provided to MD Anderson Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic, and Worldwide Innovative Networking for research efforts focused on targeted therapy for breast cancer initiating cells, therapeutic and preventative drugs for breast cancer, and the first clinical trial offering a choice of therapy guided by the biology to the majority of patients included in the study. Their goals are to identify and personalize cancer treatment to offer hope and healing to the countless women diagnosed each year.
Program Long-Term Success:
<div>The ultimate study on gene therapy is to develop an effective vaccine which will serve as an ideal therapeutic without the taxing side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. </div><div> </div><div>The success of the breast cancer initiating cells study could provide knowledge that will lead to effective strategies for cancer treatment.</div><div> </div><div>The target of the clinical trial is to find successful outcomes to personalize cancer treatment for the vast majority of patients. <br /></div>
Program Short-Term Success:
<div>Researchers have found that gene therapy delivered directly to a particularly stubborn type of breast cancer cell caused the cell to self-destruct, lowered the chance of recurrence, and helped increase the effectiveness of some types of chemotherapy. </div><div> </div><div>In the first year of the study on breast cancer initiating cells, substantial preliminary data was accumulated for targeted therapy for breast cancer initiating cells. The goal of targeted therapy is based on finding how breast cancer initiation cells can resist drug treatment, thus enabling researchers to develop clinical trials to suppress breast cancer initiation cells.</div><div> </div><div>NBCF participated in the launch of an original and academic clinical and international clinical trial offering a choice of therapy guided by the biology to the majority of patients included in the study in four countries at one time. <br /></div>
Program Success Monitored by:
Research facilities collect data from studies and submit progress reports biannually to give feedback about the findings and developments of the research studies they are conducting.
Program Success Examples: