# Tribally Engaged Approaches to Lung Screening (TEALS)

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR · 2021 · $486,718

## Abstract

Project Summary
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), and
AI/AN have worse lung cancer incidence rates, survival, and death compared to the general population.
Because lung cancer screening (LCS) with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) has been shown to reduce
lung cancer mortality by roughly 20%, the United States Preventive Services Task Force now recommends
LCS for men and women aged 55-80 years who meet specific eligibility criteria (grade-B evidence), and
subsequently the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) opted to cover this test. However, the
uptake of LCS implementation has been slow in most healthcare systems, and LCS implementation among
AI/AN has never been studied. To address this knowledge and implementation gap, we prose the “Tribally
Engaged Approaches to Lung Screening (TEALS)” study, which is a collaborative effort between the Choctaw
Nation of Oklahoma, the Stephenson Cancer Center, and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
that directly addresses the low uptake of LCS in tribal settings through the development of a theory-driven LCS
implementation program within the Choctaw Nation Health Services Authority (CNHSA). Over the course of 5
years, TEALS will: 1) Conduct focus groups and semi-structured interviews with CNHSA patients, clinicians,
and health administrators to elucidate individual- and system-level barriers and facilitators that affect the
implementation of LCS; 2) Develop, and iteratively refine an LCS care coordination intervention that will identify
eligible persons for LCS, help these patients navigate the screening process, and link them with smoking
cessation services, when applicable; 3) Measure the impact of the TEALS intervention on the receipt of
screening and a set of patient- and practice-level outcomes by conducting a cluster-randomized clinical trial of
LCS implementation; and 4) Disseminate the TEALS program to other researchers and healthcare systems
that serve AI/AN patients. TEALS will bridge the gap between evidence and clinical practice for LCS in a high-
need, low-resource setting by intervening at the level of the healthcare system. System-level interventions for
guideline implementation tend to be understudied compared to those evaluating individual-level, behavioral
interventions. However, the careful development and evaluation of an LCS screening program at the level of
the healthcare system would be critical to ensure that more patients can receive LCS when appropriate.
Through TEALS, our research will create a critically needed platform from which future studies could be
launched that will examine how to tailor the application of the LCS guideline to the individual preferences of
AI/AN patients. TEALS will establish an effective LCS program in a tribal system and thus provide a direct
benefit to the Choctaw Nation by increasing LCS participation. TEALS will serve as a blueprint for establishing
a susta...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10134101
- **Project number:** 5R01CA225439-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** ZSOLT J NAGYKALDI
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $486,718
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2024-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10134101

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10134101, Tribally Engaged Approaches to Lung Screening (TEALS) (5R01CA225439-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10134101. Licensed CC0.

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