Women in Tāmaki Makaurau will get early access to a cervical cancer self-screening test, two years before the national roll out.
Photo: 123RF
The screening allows women to test themselves for the cancer-causing virus rather than having a pap smear with a doctor or nurse.
A research programme targeting Māori and Pacific women is looking at how the do-it-yourself test will work, what helps it work and what is needed to achieve equity.
Waitematā and Auckland District Health Boards health outcomes director Karen Bartholomew said it was clear the current cervical cancer test was not working for Māori and Pasifika, and it was hoped self-testing would reach more women.
"We're working with Total Healthcare, Tāmaki Health, which is a large primary care organisation across Auckland and they have low screening coverage, particularly for Māori and Pacific women," Dr Bartholomew told Midday Report.
"What we're trying to do with our study - it's an implementation science study - so what we're particularly interested in is how the self-testing will work, what helps it to work and what it takes to ensure equity."
Listen to the full interview with Dr Karen Bartholomew
"We knew from international research that it reaches more women, and women find it more acceptable and empowering. So what we needed to know locally is how we make sure that Māori and Pacific women will benefit from that."
She said the test would be available to all women but researchers wanted to test how it would improve equity.
The study would also look at how to best tailor training for busy primary care nurses to ensure they had the information needed to have a conversation about self-testing with women.
"We're interested in the uptake of the test when it's offered opportunistically ... and what their preference for doing that is, so whether they're keen to do that at the clinic or actually to take it home, or even to look at a Telehealth appointment and get the test mailed out," Dr Bartholomew said.