Successful international seminar on ‘Improving access to cancer diagnosis in health service networks through participatory interventions"
On 4 December 2025, the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Quinta Mutis campus of the Universidad del Rosario (Bogotá, Colombia). The seminar was co-organised by the Universidad del Rosario and the Consorci de Salut i Social de Catalunya (CSC) as part of the EquityCancer-LA project, funded by the European Union.
The event, which was attended by more than 200 participants in person and virtually, including health authorities, health professionals and managers, academics, social organisations and users, provided an opportunity to share the recent progress of the project and analyse experiences with the implementation of interventions in each of the participating countries.
The seminar was structured around three round tables. In the first, the project coordinator (CSC) gave a general introduction to the project. This was followed by the presentation of the baseline results in the three countries: the Ecuadorian team (ISP-PUCE) presented the conclusions related to diagnostic times and trajectories; CSC presented the analysis of barriers to access to diagnosis from the perspective of health professionals and managers; and FSJD presented the analysis of cancer diagnosis costs.
The second panel was dedicated to the intervention carried out in Colombia. The Colombian research team (Universidad del Rosario), together with representatives from the health services network, the intervention area, and representatives from the network's user associations, shared what they had learned from the process, reflecting on the factors that influenced it and the impact achieved by the two strategies developed: capacity building for health professionals and a navigation route for users. Finally, future challenges in terms of sustainability and replicability to other health service networks were addressed.
At the last table, the teams from Chile (ESP-UChile) and Ecuador (ISP-PUCE), accompanied by members of their health networks, analysed their experiences with their respective interventions. The block ended with a joint discussion on the sustainability of the strategies implemented and opportunities to strengthen the integration of care in early cancer diagnosis.
The three blocks included opportunities for debate with the audience, which contributed to a deeper analysis of the topics presented.
You can access the seminar via the following link:
https://youtube.com/live/LHJtpwb0tkc?feature=share
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