Bergen New Bridge Medical Center Wins Global Award for Transforming Cervical Cancer Screenings

The Medical Center is the only award recipient from the United States

A multidisciplinary team from Bergen New Bridge Medical Center has won an international UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence Team of Distinction Award for transforming cervical cancer screenings. The team members being honored include Ilham Atir, Laboratory Director, Katie Richardson, Senior Vice President of Operations, Raquel Ortiz, Vice President of Ambulatory Care, Diane Darmody, Chief Nursing Officer, and Dr. Charlie Celestine, Gynecology.

This integrated clinical care team recognized the need to evolve the Medical Center’s cervical cancer screening program to better serve women in Northern New Jersey and the surrounding area. Traditional HPV testing, while effective, often left patients and clinicians without conclusive answers resulting in significant patient anxiety and potentially unnecessary, stressful follow-up procedures.

“This collaborative effort to innovate an essential screening test for women is a game changer for the Medical Center, and most importantly, our patients,” said Deborah Visconi, President & CEO, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. “We are dedicated to being a beacon of health, hope, and healing and now by transforming our cervical cancer screening process we are expanding access to this essential women’s health service while providing greater patient satisfaction and improving health and wellness outcomes.”

To innovate the screening process, a high-risk extended HPV genotype assay was integrated into standard practice, enabling identification of 14 high-risk HPV types. Additionally, cervical cancer screening often requires a pap smear, which patients find uncomfortable, invasive, and inconvenient, so patient self-collection was introduced to make it more convenient and comfortable for patients.

Screening and follow-up visits have increased by 79.3%, with a 14% increase in patient satisfaction associated with women’s health visits. Additionally, there has been a 13% increase in appointments for women’s health services and a 21% reduction in ‘no-show’ follow-up visits. Strategic implementation of HPV Extended Genotype enables identification of patients with the highest-risk types quickly and fast track them for necessary, immediate follow-up. Patients with lower risk types are protected from unnecessary invasive scans which has resulted in savings of $3.7 million between 2024 to 2025 at the Medical Center.

UNIVANTS stands for Unity and Avant-Garde. It was created by Abbott with other leading healthcare organizations around the world with a common vision to celebrate and inspire healthcare excellence.

“The award is a celebration of teams working across disciplines to address unmet needs and achieve measurably better outcomes,” the organization said in a video statement.