Worldwide, more than one billion women face sexual and reproductive healthcare gaps with profound consequences to themselves, their families and their communities. Cervical cancer – a completely preventable disease – exemplifies this crisis. Over 500,000 women will get cervical cancer each year, and 1.5 million women will die prematurely over the next five years. 

Screening for cervical cancer in many low- and middle-income countries is as low as two to ten percent. Many women lack access to screening as well as knowledge of prevention and treatment. Far too many women suffer from stigma and shame. 

Women-inspired Strategies for Health (WISH) equips women with the technology and confidence to have control over their bodies and their health in order to reduce disparities in access to screening and treatment. Focusing specifically on low-income women in Peru, this project team conducted evaluations of key implementation factors for long-term sustainability and scaling of the WISH model (cost-effectiveness, policymaking, community awareness/storytelling) for cervical cancer screening and treatment.

The WISH model involves equipping primary health facilities with technologies for cervical cancer prevention and treatment at the accessible community level. These include HPV self-sampling (screening), Pocket colposcopy (diagnosis) and thermocoagulator (treatment). The model also involves building health system capacity by training women to become community health workers within their communities and facilitating peer-to-peer mentoring and storytelling for education and destigmatization of reproductive health.

In 2021-2022, the team created a magazine to highlight how implementation of the WISH model increases cervical cancer screening rates. The intended audience is healthcare providers and policy makers in Peru. Since the WISH Model was launched in 2019 in Peru, the students incorporated study results which showcased the efficacy of community-based and patient-centered care such as task sharing between physicians and midwives, utilization of simple technologies and education/empowerment of women as they navigate care. The magazine ends with a discussion of the study, in Peru, that began in March 2022."

Learn more about this project team by viewing the team's video.

Team Outputs

Empowering and Centering Women in Cervical Cancer Care (WISH model magazine)

Archive of women’s stories

Costing and decision models

Policy recommendations

Timing

Summer 2021 – Spring 2022 

This Team in the News

Educational Innovation: Beyond Methods Into Experiences – Part 2: The GWHT Network

See earlier related team, Empowering Prevention of Cervical Cancer: Women-inspired Strategies for Health (WISH) (2020-2021).

Image: Bass Connections team with HOPE Ladies in Peru, March 2020, courtesy of Center for Global Women's Health Technologies