A Path Well Travelled? Mapping the Cervical Cancer Care Pathway

Abstract Aim: This study aims to explore how key stakeholders navigate the cervical cancer care system in Ethiopia, assess the effectiveness of care delivery across the entire continuum, and identify points where individuals disengage from care. It also seeks to map the roles and contributions of various stakeholders involved in cervical cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and support. The ultimate goal is to generate actionable insights to improve the quality, efficiency, and equity of cervical cancer care, with a particular focus on leveraging AI-enabled digital health interventions tailored to the local context. Background: Cervical cancer remains a public health concern in women’s health, and the highest prevalence, morbidity, and mortality is highly accounted in the low and middle income countries; and Sub-Saharan African countries bears a high disproportionate rate. This is despite due to an ineffective healthcare coverage and low accessibility of available services. It is often difficult to have equal access of cervical cancer care services due to differences between groups of community settlements and socio-economic status of the community. Method: A qualitative phenomenological research will be conducted based on stakeholder (cervical cancer patients, medical/health workers, health-system administrators, and other care givers such as NGO's and community workers) interviews in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This research will be conducted to answer a research question; “How does stakeholders experience and navigate the cervical cancer care pathway, and what challenges & unmet needs do they encounter across the care continuum’’?. Conclusion: This cervical cancer care pathway study will be the first research conducted in Ethiopia to identify unmet needs of stakeholders from prevention to treatment and post-treatment, identify where stakeholders drop-off from the care system, evaluate how care is effectively delivered across the continuum, and the output findings would support the development of improved cervical cancer care strategy. Ultimately, the care pathway study will create a data-informed foundation to design & implement AI-driven solutions that are context-specific, patient-centered, and equity-focused digital health interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa.