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Bears Care, the charitable arm of the Chicago Bears, awarded a $150,000 grant to the University of Illinois Cancer Center’s Pamela Ganschow, MD, to support two initiatives that aim to expand patient navigation services to connect patients to free breast and cervical cancer screening and to identify patients who are eligible for cancer genetic services.

The Chicago Bears and Bears Care host an annual gala to raise money for breast and ovarian cancer research, and the Bears Care Gala has contributed millions of dollars to advance groundbreaking research, support patient services, and fund innovative programs that improve outcomes for women facing cancer.

The grant to Ganschow, the Cancer Center’s Director for Cancer Prevention and Survivorship Clinical Programs, will help to reduce cancer disparities by expanding access to genetic services and breast and cervical cancer screening at our partner Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), the UI Health Mile Square Health Center. The Cancer Center is part of UI Health, the academic health enterprise at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Granschow practices in the Internal Medicine Department at UI Health, providing patient-centered care focused on cancer prevention, risk assessment, and survivorship.

The comprehensive patient navigation supported by the Bears Care grant is an evidence-based strategy that helps individuals facing financial strain, limited health literacy, transportation challenges, and other competing needs successfully navigate complex healthcare systems and receive timely care. Increasing delivery of these services within an FQHC is essential because the patients served there would otherwise have little or no access to genetic risk assessment, specialty care or comprehensive cancer screening.

One initiative supported by this grant is the Mile Square Family Cancer Screening Initiative (MiFamCan), which was created to close this gap by integrating hereditary cancer risk assessment directly into everyday workflows at the Mile Square FQHC, which has a network of clinics across Chicago. MiFamCan builds on a longstanding navigation model previously led by Ganschow at Cook County Health and applies that expertise to a new focus on precision cancer prevention in primary care. The Bears Care grant will support added staff and technology for the program.

The grant will also support the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program (IBCCP), which provides uninsured and underinsured women with free breast and cervical cancer screening, diagnostic follow-up, and comprehensive navigation. As a lead agency, the Cancer Center delivers these services through the Mile Square FQHC, serving women who face major structural barriers and often have no other access to screening, diagnostic evaluation, or coordinated care. The Bears Care grant will support a portion of the IBCCP navigator’s time, which is not covered through the state’s IBCCP funding.