Screen Smart

    The Colorectal Cancer Alliance's Screen Smart initiative empowers stakeholders with data-driven insights for smarter colorectal cancer screening decisions.

    The Alliance's Screen Smart project logo, which includes the words data, access, and adherence.

    Navigating a complex landscape

    The Alliance launched Screen Smart in 2024, serving as a convener and thought leader to provide critical data and insights on data, access, and adherence in colorectal cancer screening. 

    Our goals

    To address these challenges, the Colorectal Cancer Alliance’s Screen Smart initiative focuses on three core goals: 

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    Share insights

    Clarify the screening landscape by sharing data-driven insights on current and emerging screening modalities. 

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    Address barriers

    Improve access and adoption by identifying and addressing barriers to equitable implementation through expert panels and policy discussions. 

    An icon of a doctor.

    Support users

    Enhance data-driven decision-making by disseminating timely information on test approvals, performance metrics, and pipeline developments to support providers and patients.

    The current situation

    Over the past several decades, research in colorectal cancer prevention and early detection has led to the development of a growing number of screening modalities. In recent years, innovation in this space has accelerated rapidly, introducing new technologies and approaches. However, this progress has also created a complex and often confusing landscape for both healthcare professionals and patients. The proliferation of options — combined with limited head-to-head comparisons and 

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    inconsistent data — has made it more difficult to make informed decisions about screening. Additionally, new barriers have emerged around equitable access and adoption of the latest screening tests.

    Our progress

    In 2024, the Alliance hosted a discussion during Digestive Disease Week bringing together experts to collect data and develop a framework for evaluating colorectal cancer screening options. That work that culminated in a published article in early 2025 that offered an apples-to-apples comparison of screening test methodologies, giving healthcare providers a common resource to inform clinical decision making. Building on those findings, the 2025 Screen Smart discussion continued the conversation, emphasizing emerging technologies and adherence strategies based on modeling studies related to screening access.