Center for Global Oncology Unveils New Mobile Clinic for HPV Testing

November 2024

Access to medical care can determine someone’s survival.  

When Lifang Hou, MD, PhD and her team at the Center for Global Oncology saw a problem with access screening for human papilloma virus (HPV), a leading cause of cervical cancer, they found a way to help.  

The team created a mobile clinic called Health on the Roll to bring HPV testing and treatment directly to women in the community.  

Health on the Roll is an automobile that is fully equipped as a clinic for medical examinations, specifically HPV testing and treatment. The mobile clinic provides rapid HPV DNA testing, providing a test result within 90 minutes and following up with necessary treatment. It also provides testing for other common diseases such as malaria, other sexually transmitted diseases, and education for breast cancer prevention. 

Health on the Roll mobile clinic provides HPV testing and treatment to women in Mali and Nigeria.

Spearheading the project are Hou, Havey Institute for Global Health Center for Global Oncology center director and chief of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Mamoudou Maiga, MD, PhD, associate professor of Preventive Medicine (Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention).  

Working alongside Hou and Maiga are Jian-Jun Wei, MD director of Gynecologic Pathology in the Department of Pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Imran Morhason-Bello, MD, PhD, from The University of Ibadan and Brehima Diakite, MD, PhD from The University of Science, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako. 

Funded by the John R. Flanagan Charitable Foundation, the Health on the Roll mobile clinic is a collaborative endeavor for the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Center for Research and Training on Molecular Pathologies (CREFPAM), The University of Ibadan, and The University of Science, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako.

Health on the Roll will travel to four rural locations with limited access to healthcare and high-risk populations: two communities in Mali, Kita and Sikasso, and two communities in Nigeria, the Kajola and Iseyin local government areas in the North Senatorial District, and the Ibadan North and NorthEast local government areas, located in Oyo State. 

Mobile laboratories have been used extensively in Africa to successfully expand testing capacity for COVID-19 and will provide a reliable means of mobile testing for HPV. 

Equipped with a laboratory room, gynecological examination room and examination bed, lavatory room, worktable, pharmacy, ultrasound machine, basic laboratory equipment including HPV DNA testing devices, and a lab bench, the Health on the Roll bus allows patients to board and move throughout the vehicle for individual self-sample collection, testing, and treatment as needed. HPV molecular test results will be available within 90 minutes of collection. 

Health on the Roll mobile clinic includes a laboratory room, gynecological examination room and examination bed, lavatory room, pharmacy, ultrasound machine, and more.

Health on the Roll is designed to make sure everyone has access to HPV screenings and care.  

HPV is estimated to be responsible for one-third of all cancer diagnoses in low- and middle-income countries.  

With the Health on the Roll mobile clinic, Hou and her team are working to change that. 

The Center for Global Oncology is a shared center with the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and Havey Institute for Global Health. 

Lifang Hou, MD, PhD is a member of Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM). Hou and Mamoudou Maiga, MD, PhD are members of Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS). Jian-Jun Wei, MD is a member of the Center for Reproductive Science.

To learn more about the Center for Global Oncology, visit their website. 

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