P0790 - Giving It A Shot: An Inter-professional Program to Improve HPV Vaccination Rates in Health Center Settings

The fastest growing HPV related cancer is oropharyngeal cancer, which in men has now surpassed the rate of cervical cancer in women. According to the CDC, human papillomavirus (HPV) causes more than 33,500 cases of cancer in the US each year and 90% of these cancers can be prevented by the HPV vaccine. There is now a great opportunity for interprofessional collaboration to address a virus that is of great concern to both dentists and physicians. The recently adopted policy of the American Dental Association (ADA) urges dentists to support and promote the use of the HPV vaccine. The ADA’s Council on Advocacy for Access and Prevention (CAAP) supports the training of Community Dental Health Coordinators (CDHC) who are effective at collaboration with their counterparts on the medical side.

Methods
Zufall Health Center, an FQHC serving underserved communities in northwest New Jersey, trained and employed a group of 8 CDHCs to improve Zufall’s HPV vaccine rates. Project AIM was created to achieve this goal by engaging members of the primary care team and developing interdisciplinary dental-medical workflows. CDHCs participated in the development and implementation of an HPV vaccine referral protocol which used a multipronged approach. Strategies included enhancing provider and staff education, utilizing available internal resources, increasing patient and staff engagement, improving process changes in clinic flow and enhancing data collection and analysis.

Results
Through educational opportunities and techniques to engage patients during the dental visit, HPV vaccine awareness increased by 83 % from baseline and HPV vaccination rates increased by 24 % from baseline. This was a direct result of collaboration and integration and how these can enhance the dental visit to include vaccine services