What a Real-World Cervical Cancer Screening Program Can Teach Us: Applying Implementation Science at the US-Mexico Border

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Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits now available – This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.

In this seminar, María Fernández, Ph.D., will discuss how the Leveraging Implementation Science to Optimize Strategies for Cancer Control (LISTOS for Cancer Control) program, a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded U54 Center, applied implementation science frameworks and processes to evaluate and strengthen a government-sponsored cervical cancer control program in Mexico. 

Drawing on Mexico's Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) Maquiladora Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Screening Program, which provides HPV self-sampling to underserved women working in manufacturing plants along the United States–Mexico border, Dr. Fernández will describe factors that influenced program adoption, implementation, sustainability, and follow-up completion. These findings are now guiding the design of strategies to support program improvement and scale-up across Mexico. This work demonstrates how implementation science, conducted in close partnership with a national health system, can advance equitable cancer prevention in low- and middle-income countries.

Dr. Fernández is Vice President of Population Health and Implementation Science at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) and the founding Co-Director of the UTHealth Houston Institute for Implementation Science. Dr. Fernández is also the Lorne Bain Chair of Public Health and Medicine, Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences, and Director of the UTHealth Houston Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research (CHPPR) at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health.

As a researcher and a leader, Dr. Fernández has spent her career conducting participatory community-engaged research and practice to develop, evaluate, implement, and disseminate interventions to improve health and reduce health disparities. Her research focuses on cancer and chronic disease prevention and control among underserved populations in the U.S. and globally. Dr. Fernández is an expert in dissemination and implementation (D&I) research, having served as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health Study Section and as faculty for several national and international D&I training programs.

Dr. Fernández also has an extensive portfolio of global, federal, and state-funded research developing and improving evidence-based interventions and guidelines for the prevention and control of cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in clinical and public health settings. Dr. Fernández has over 250 peer-reviewed publications and has co-authored several books, including the 4th edition of Planning Health Promotion Programs: An Intervention Mapping Approach (2016) and the Handbook of Community-based Participatory Research (2017). Her awards include the Association for Schools and Programs of Public Health Research Excellence Award and the UTHealth President's Scholar Award for Research Excellence.