Congratulations to our valued partners at Quality Health Associates of North Dakota (QHA) for being named Grand Prize Winners of the 2026 American Cancer Society National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (ACS NCCRT) National Achievement Awards.
This prestigious recognition honors organizations and individuals who are making a meaningful impact in preventing colorectal cancer and reducing related deaths. QHA’s work will be highlighted nationally throughout the coming year and showcased at the 2026 ACS NCCRT Annual Meeting.
Over the past five years, QHA has demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment to improving colorectal cancer screening across North Dakota, especially in rural and underserved communities.
Despite launching during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the team successfully partnered with 21 clinics, achieving:
QHA helped develop and implement widely shared resources, including:
In collaboration with Exact Sciences, the team also helped establish a new national process allowing Indian Health Service facilities to order mt-sDNA tests using Purchased/Referred Care funds, an important advancement that went live earlier this year.
QHA has helped shift the conversation around screening: The best test is the one a patient completes. This patient-centered approach recognizes that matching screening methods to individual risk and accessibility leads to better outcomes.
This achievement reflects the dedication of an outstanding team, including:
Each team member played a key role in the initiative's success. For example, Jonathan Gardner, who is now part of Mountain Pacific's data analytics team, describes his role in the project as “predominantly data mining, data collection and analysis, [electronic health record] EHR/reporting education and program evaluation. I built the data collection forms and processes in REDCap, helped to build the evaluation measures and evaluation plan, implementation plan and logic models and put together an incredibly complex IQC system that was used nearly daily for all technical assistance with our participating clinics. I made the initial introduction to Exact Sciences, the company behind Cologuard, who completely transformed our vision of colorectal cancer screening and continues to be a key partner in all of our work.”
With renewed funding, the team will continue this important work, supporting rural and Tribal communities over the next five years, improving screening rates and ultimately saving lives.
Mountain Pacific is incredibly proud to partner with a team that exemplifies innovation, resilience and impact. Learn more about this work at https://screend.org.
Read the NCCRT press release: 2026 ACS NCCRT National Awardees Announced - American Cancer Society National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable
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