Enhancing lung cancer screening through ‘Saved by the Scan’: Lessons from a multipronged public service advertising program.

Abstract

10575 Background: Lung cancer screening rates remain low across the US in populations recommended for screening by low-dose CT (LDCT). Screening rates further declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in high-risk populations including racial and ethnic minorities. The American Lung Association (ALA) launched a nationwide public service advertising (PSA) program called ‘Saved by the Scan’ to enhance lung cancer screening rates, for which Baptist Health South Florida (BHSF) became the first healthcare system partner. The following work describes this major PSA effort in South Florida to enhance lung cancer screening, and the lessons learned thereof. Methods: A multipronged, institutionally-driven public awareness program, in collaboration with ALA, was initiated in 2021 by BHSF, the largest healthcare organization in the region, and was targeted towards South Florida residents. This innovative multimedia effort used traditional communication modalities, including newspapers, billboards, etc., along with digital modalities, including email and social media, to increase lung cancer screening awareness in both English and Spanish in a locally-adapted manner. Key performance indicators (KPIs), reach, and impact of the program were tracked. The most successful components, as per KPIs, were identified. Deidentified data of screening LDCT done at BHSF was reviewed to determine all individuals screened during 2019-2021 and descriptive statistics were calculated. Results: 4619 individuals from South Florida were screened at BHSF from 2019-2021, 1498 were in 2019, 1193 in 2020, and 1928 in 2021. Screening fell by 20.3% in 2020, likely due to the pandemic, and rose by 61.6% in 2021, helped by the program. Overall, a 21.9% increase from pre-COVID screening rates was seen. In 2022, the total reach of traditional media was estimated to be 4,607,273 individuals. Out of 133,554 emails sent, 36,877 (27.2%) were opened, with a click-through rate of 6.4%. Out of 1,768,438 digital impressions, 16,791 (0.9%) had links clicked. The total number of conversions from digital media was estimated to be 337 individuals with 232 (68.9%) from emails and 105 (31.1%) from social media. Conclusions: Lung cancer screening can be successfully boosted through large organizational efforts, particularly those targeted to needs of the local population. Digital media approaches for improving public health have seemingly low conversion rates but their large outreach provides a high impact. Efforts are warranted to enroll more healthcare systems and scale the program nationwide.