Challenge
Half of the population will experience cancer during their lifetime, yet approximately 40% of these cases are preventable, equating to over 135,000 cases each year. Early diagnosis is crucial for effective treatment. A national healthcare plan set an ambitious target for 75% of cancer patients to be diagnosed at an early
stage by 2028.
A key target for early diagnosis is cervical cancer. Despite 99.8% of cervical cancer cases being preventable, it still causes around 1000 deaths a year in the UK. Caja was hired to assist with business operations in designing behavioural science nudges to enhance the uptake for cervical screening, and to pilot this
approach within primary care providers.
Solution
Stakeholder Engagement
Caja conducted stakeholder workshops - both in-person before the pandemic and virtually after restrictions were applied - aimed
at:
- Increasing awareness of behavioural science as a tool for demand and change management, enhancing capabilities across the system.
- Understanding ongoing initiatives to improve screening uptake, ensuring the firm's efforts complemented and extended existing projects.
- Piloting nudge design and implementation in real settings.
These efforts were complemented by interviews and engagement across the system to fully grasp the local stakeholder landscape
and challenges faced.
Analysis and Developing the Nudge Assets
Decision architectures for Cervical Cancer were created, identifying points where eligible individuals make choices affecting screening uptake, such as booking and attending appointments. Hypotheses for each decision point were
developed, suggesting behavioural 'nudges' to address them. This was supported by detailed analytics, demand forecasting, and visualisations to develop insights that combined national
health data with other sources like population statistics.
Implementation/Testing and Skills Transfer
The analysis helped identify areas where the implementation could have the most significant impact, such as regions with socio-economic challenges and lower screening uptake. The cancer care team worked with a wide range of practices to find those eager to test the interventions with their patients. This led to selecting several GP practices as test sites, including control
groups.
