Current Developments in ICO-IDIBELL’s Work on Prevention Policy Mapping and Evaluation for ONCODIR

Our ONCODIR partners from ICO-IDIBELL, a team of policymakers and health researchers based in Catalonia, are currently expanding the ONCODIR project across several work packages. Recently, their work has focused in particular on Work Package 5 (WP5). One of WP5’s goals is to identify the most effective ways to deploy the ONCODIR solutions. In practice, this means ensuring that, once the effectiveness of the project’s applications is known, healthcare organisations can adopt them successfully.

To support this goal, the ICO-IDIBELL team has undertaken several steps.

First, they mapped all existing preventive programmes for colorectal cancer in Catalonia. Their findings indicate that there are no primary prevention programmes specifically targeting colorectal cancer. Instead, the region offers broad cancer prevention programmes or secondary prevention programmes for colorectal cancer. After gathering all available information, the team organised it in a way that aligns with WP5’s objectives.

Second, they conducted interviews with key actors in the public health system of Catalonia and Barcelona. The interviewees included Esteve Fernández, Secretary of Public Health of Catalonia, and Carme Borrell, Manager of the Barcelona Public Health Agency. Both are highly influential figures in policymaking, including in areas related to primary prevention programmes.

The third step is currently in progress. As a preview, the team plans to review key documentation related to the evaluation of prevention policies. Following this, they will interview the individuals responsible for evaluating these programmes. This process will begin in La Rioja, with the possibility of expanding the approach to other regions such as Catalonia. The objective is to understand what expectations guide different prevention policies in order to establish a comparable standard—one the project ultimately aims to exceed.

This is the update for now. No photographs are available, as the interviews were conducted online. A photograph illustrating their work is expected to be included in the next update.