Roswell Park Indigenous Cancer Screening/Navigation Success Reaches New Mexico with BMS Foundation Grant

• Groundbreaking patient navigation model for other communities
• Puebloan principles to be incorporated into model to best serve population
• Grant is third awarded to Roswell Park by Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation

Newswise — BUFFALO, N.Y. and ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new collaboration will see Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center partnering with the University of New Mexico (UNM), supported by a grant from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, to address health disparities for the Pueblo Nations of New Mexico.

A three-year, $689,000 grant recently awarded by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, an independent charitable organization (BMS Foundation), will empower Roswell Park’s Department of Indigenous Cancer Health and UNM’s Native American Budget and Policy Institute to collaboratively translate the success of Roswell Park’s patient navigation services for Indigenous communities in Western New York to a program that will serve the unique needs of people of the Pueblo Nations.

This effort expands on a three-year, $3.3 million program also supported by the BMS Foundation. Through that effort, Roswell Park installed full-time patient navigators in high-need, local, rural and Native communities to break down barriers surrounding cancer prevention, screening, treatment and education.

“The partnership between Roswell Park’s Department of Indigenous Cancer Health and the University of New Mexico’s Native American Budget and Policy Institute is an outstanding example of building on community relationships to provide meaningful impact for Indigenous peoples,” says Rodney Haring, PhD, MSW, Chair of Roswell Park’s Department of Indigenous Cancer Health. “By working collectively and sharing best practices for Indigenous-based patient navigation services, health education and health policy, we are able to braid a successful model for community-based implementation into early cancer screening and lung cancer prevention, while also addressing environmental health and health policy.”

Now, this comprehensive services model developed at Roswell Park is being adapted to serve communities in New Mexico, advancing health equity for Native populations outside of the immediate community served by Roswell Park in Western and Upstate New York. 

“The Roswell Park UNM-NABPI collaborative is bringing critical health resources to address the immediate needs of New Mexico’s tribal communities, while setting the standard of care for our future generations,” says Carmela Roybal, PhD, MBGPH, Executive Director of the Native American Budget and Policy Institute at UNM.

In the same way that Dr. Haring and his team built Roswell Park’s program around the values and ideas of regional Native tribes, Drs. Haring and Roybal will structure this new program around Puebloan guiding concepts: the Canes of Sovereignty Principles. Centering Indigenous wisdom in providing care to Native communities is a key component to effectively reaching the local communities in a trustworthy and respectful manner.

This grant will provide the initial support these teams need to install a sustainable safety net system for Puebloan communities. The program will focus on lung cancer screening and overall education on environmental and lifestyle factors that contribute to cancer development.

“We are proud to collaborate with Roswell Park and UNM-NABPI in this critical work to improve patient outcomes in New Mexico,” says Catharine Grimes, President of the BMS Foundation. “By strengthening local capacity, we have the opportunity to close health equity gaps and help navigate patients to finding the cancer care that works best for them.”

The new grant is the third research collaboration between the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation and Roswell Park. The Foundation recently supported another initiative at Roswell Park through the Go2 Foundation, a lung cancer screening and education project led by Mary Reid, BSN, MSPH, PhD.

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From the world’s first chemotherapy research to the PSA prostate cancer biomarker, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center generates innovations that shape how cancer is detected, treated and prevented worldwide. Driven to eliminate cancer’s grip on humanity, the Roswell Park team of 4,000 makes compassionate, patient-centered cancer care and services accessible across New York State and beyond. Founded in 1898, Roswell Park was among the first three cancer centers nationwide to become a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and is the only one to hold this designation in Upstate New York. To learn more about Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Roswell Park Care Network, visit www.roswellpark.org, call 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or email [email protected].