About Us
Prevention and Screening Clinical Services has a primary aim to minimize the risk and prevalence of cancer and other chronic diseases in Northwestern Ontario., Our service is composed of four key areas:
- Prevention
- Screening
- Diagnostic Assessment Program
- Clinical Genetics Program
- Prevention
- Our prevention initiatives focus on health promotion, including education and outreach, to decrease chronic disease risk factors and promote healthy living.
- Connect with the Prevention Specialist for more personalized goal setting, smoking cessation support, lifestyle education, cancer screening support, and connections to programs and services in your community.
- Screening
- Our service actively promotes and educates the public about Ontario’s four organized cancer screening programs for breast, cervical, colon, and lung cancer screening. We also support healthcare providers to help them increase cancer screening uptake.
- Each year, 11,000 women in Northwestern Ontario complete a mammogram to screen for breast cancer.
- Prevention and Screening Clinical Services provides cancer screening in Northwestern Ontario through the Screen for Life Coach. The Screen for Life Coach travels across Northwestern Ontario to increase access to cancer screening services. The Screen for Life Coach provides access to breast, cervical and colon cancer screening. All services are available without a health care provider’s referral if eligible. Health care providers can refer their patients to access services on the Screen for Life Coach.
- The Screen for Life Coach brings cancer screening closer to home for First Nations communities in Northwestern Ontario by visiting 35 road access communities and serving a number of fly-in communities.
- Diagnostic Assessment Program
- The Diagnostic Assessment Program (DAP) helps to guide patients through their diagnostic journey, from suspicion of colon, lung, breast and cervical cancer to definitive diagnosis. The program has two patient navigators who help to coordinate diagnostic testing and provide a single point of care for patients and their families.
- Breast patient navigators act as a single point of contact for individuals who may have had an abnormal mammogram through the Ontario Breast Screening Program (OBSP) or if they are referred by their health care provider for breast health concerns. The breast patient navigators also provide support to individuals who are referred to the OBSP High Risk Program.
- There is also a patient navigator who works with patients to improve their coordination of care when there is a suspicion of lung cancer and colon cancer. The colon patient navigator coordinates timely access to colonoscopy when a patient has had a positive colon screening kit or when the individual has a first-degree family history of colon cancer.
- Clinical Genetics Program
- Genetic counselling is a health care service that provides information to families and individuals who are affected by or at-risk for inherited and/or genetic conditions.
- Genetic counselling may be appropriate in the areas of pre-conception/pre-natal, paediatric or adult onset hereditary conditions or hereditary cancers. A referral from your health care provider is required.
