Big Ideas Start Here
Positioned on the campus of a powerhouse research university, Dell Med leverages the expertise of its faculty, staff, students, residents and fellows to bring big ideas to Central Texas, which we implement alongside partners in pursuit of mutually held goals.
One of those goals? Making Austin a model healthy city.
Embedding Community Health Workers
A new Dell Med community health worker program helps patients form relationships with primary care providers and connects them with follow-up appointments, care coordination between inpatient and outpatient teams, discharge planning, health promotion, health education and much more.
Partners include Dell Med’s Department of Health Social Work, Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, Lone Star Circle of Care and CommUnityCare Health Centers. The program was created to address the community’s immediate COVID-19 needs but is now expanding to become a sustainable care delivery model.
Cancer Prevention & Control
Through partnerships with CommUnityCare and Lone Star Circle of Care, Dell Med’s cancer prevention and control programs are expanding through support from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas, which has awarded Dell Med researchers more than $7.3 million since 2017.
Big Pink Bus
Lone Star Circle of Care’s Big Pink Bus provides cancer prevention services for 2,700+ uninsured women in Central Texas each year — including 1,837+ women in Travis County. The mobile mammography clinic is a collaborative effort with over 20 organizations, including catalyst funding from Dell Med’s CPRIT awards.
Smoking Cessation
Recently, Dell Med’s smoking cessation and lung cancer program provided intensive smoking cessation services for 120+ CommUnityCare patients, resulting in a 24% quit rate and 41 patient referrals for additional diagnostic services.
Starting in 2018, CommUnityCare and Dell Med worked collaboratively to screen 9,000 patients who are uninsured or have low income for colorectal cancer through 39,000+ at-home, mailed screening kits over a three-year period.
During its first year, the mail program combined with CommUnityCare’s clinical initiatives served to double the percentage of patients screened for colorectal cancer from 18.4% to 37%.
Health Beyond the Clinic
Through the “Sunshine Calls” program — a partnership between Dell Med’s Factor Health and Meals on Wheels Central Texas — 240 older adults with low income participated in a daily phone check-in program that significantly improved depression, anxiety and loneliness during the pandemic.
The program is now expanding to support the larger Meals on Wheels community.