Abstract

Reimagining rural cancer care – the Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence (BCCOE) in Rwanda

Part of Special Series: WONCA World Rural Health Conference Abstracts 2022go to url

AUTHOR

name here
Shagun Tuli
1 MBBS, MGHD, Student * ORCID logo

CORRESPONDENCE

*Dr Shagun Tuli

AFFILIATIONS

1 University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Rwanda

PUBLISHED

10 January 2023 Volume 23 Issue 1

HISTORY

RECEIVED: 20 September 2022

ACCEPTED: 20 September 2022

CITATION

Tuli S.  Reimagining rural cancer care – the Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence (BCCOE) in Rwanda. Rural and Remote Health 2023; 23: 8174. https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH8174

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSgo to url

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

go to urlCited by

no pdf available, use your browser's print function to create one


abstract:

Introduction and Problem Statement: Long travel distance, lack of access to clinical trials and reduced availability of interdisciplinary treatments are some of the structural barriers in providing cancer care in rural areas, even in high-income countries. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), such challenges are disproportionately exacerbated. It is estimated that 70% of all cancer-related deaths will occur in LMICs by 2040. Thus, rural cancer care in LMICs calls for urgent innovative interventions aligning with the principles of health equity.

Model Solution: Launched in 2012, the Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence (BCCOE) is an example of transformative collaboration and innovation. It harnesses the principle of equity by expanding specialized care to remote and rural populations. It delivers cancer-related diagnostic, chemotherapy, palliative and surgical services with the support of national and regional referral hospitals for advanced cancer surgeries and radiotherapy. Complementary social support, such as meals, transportation and living accommodations for families, further optimize patient outcomes by accommodating patients' psychosocial needs while they receive cancer care.

Discussion: By 2020, the BCCOE had treated over 11,116 cancer patients from Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Furthermore, innovative approaches such as the Zipline delivery system – a drone-based drug re-fill community delivery system – were adopted to tide over during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a growing global community of health leaders, it is imperative to adapt these novel designs and augment healthcare delivery for rural populations.

You might also be interested in:

2021 - Prevalence of overweight and obesity among school children and parents: a cross-sectional study

2021 - 'I’m still here, that’s probably the best part'. Lives of those living rurally with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator: a qualitative study

2018 - Geographic differences in the experiences of HIV- related stigma for women living with HIV in Northern and rural communities of Ontario, Canada

This PDF has been produced for your convenience. Always refer to the live site https://www.rrh.org.au/journal/article/8174 for the Version of Record.