Darrell Gray II, MD, MPH, a gastroenterologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, is passionate about removing barriers to health care. As deputy director of the Center for Cancer Health Equity at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, he is part of a team that takes a mobile colorectal education unit to underserved areas of Columbus. For Dr. Gray and his colleagues, it’s all about frank talk — and some hard-to-avoid visuals.

 

Maybe it’s standing eye-to-eye with a colon polyp, or maybe it’s seeing how jarring a colorectal cancer tumor looks. But there’s no doubt that walking through a human colon, its walls smooth, pink and plump when healthy — and spotted, lumpy and bulbous when not — drives home the importance of preventive care.

 

The mobile unit and the work it supports is made possible for people in communities across Ohio because of donors, corporate partners and volunteers. The highlight of that mobile screening unit? An inflatable colon that blows up like a tunnel and is so large that adults can walk through it. The inflatable colon shows how a normal, healthy colon should look, what happens when benign and malignant polyps appear and how a colon looks when afflicted by inflammatory bowel disease and advanced colon cancer.

 

“Our doctors, nurses and staff provide guided, scripted tours through the colon, and it’s incredible to be a part of this novel and interactive learning experience,” Dr. Gray says. “We see that people’s knowledge about colon cancer increases. Their willingness to talk about it with their peers, family and doctor increases. But also, their intention to get screened increases, and that’s what matters.”