Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

In Canada, despite extensive evidence supporting the Pap test as a highly effective form of cervical cancer screening, there are still groups of women who are not appropriately screened, including immigrants, women of low income, ethno-racial minorities, and other hard-to-reach groups. HPV self-testing, which allows women to screen for the virus that causes cervical cancer in their own chosen location and at their own chosen time, has the potential to reduce cervical cancer screening inequalities. Self-testing has recently been incorporated into the Dutch cervical cancer screening program and is being explored in other European countries, but is not currently in mainstream use in Canada. The overarching goal of this planning project is to explore the challenges faced in the provision of HPV self-testing in current provincial cervical cancer screening program in Canada and begin to lay out a framework for addressing these challenges. The specific objectives of the proposed project are: 1) to conduct a comprehensive literature review and environmental scan to determine the current state of art related to HPV self-testing in Canada 2) to conduct a series of consultations with key stakeholders such as services providers and policy makers across Canada to seek their views on HPV self-testing 3) to hold a one day think tank session as a medium for knowledge exchange and discussion about our consolidated findings, with a focus on barriers and facilitators to incorporation of HPV self-testing into provincial cervical cancer screening programs, and important next steps from the research and policy perspectives. This planning exercise will be an important first step in a program of research that has the potential to ultimately significantly impact cervical cancer screening for hard-to-reach women and reduce screening gaps.