Check Out My Rack: A Webinar Empowering Young Women Through Comprehensive Breast Health Education

The Brem Foundation to Defeat Breast Cancer, a 501c3 non-profit organization based in the Washington, DC area, is dedicated to advancing early detection through education, access, and advocacy. While conventional guidelines recommend initiating annual breast screenings at age 40 for women of average risk, Brem underscores the importance of starting breast health education and empowerment earlier in life. Nearly 80% of young women with breast cancer find their own breast abnormality and 1 in 10 breast cancers occur in women under the age of 45, making self-exams and education essential. As part of our education programs, we aim to engage younger women and people of pre-screening age in breast cancer awareness through an annual webinar titled "Check Out My Rack".

Since 2021, Brem Foundation has hosted three annual webinars titled "Check Out My Rack". Tailored to resonate with college students and women under 40, each hour-long session shares essential breast health information, including the importance of family history, genetic testing, self-exams, and encouraging loved ones to screen. The webinars included live self-exam tutorials, provided self-advocacy tools, and featured compelling narratives from prominent young survivors. Participants were encouraged to engage with the expert educator radiologists and breast health advocates who lead the programs and to ask questions related to their breast health.

In 2023, 299 people registered for Check out My Rack with a total of 130 attending the webinar, doubling attendance from the year prior. Over 48 educational materials were downloaded by participants, Brem Foundation obtained 191 new contacts for future educational engagement, and doubled the conversion rate of registrants to attendees in 2023, from 21% to 42%. Using a "collaborator" model, Brem engaged like-minded entities to market the event and grow attendance, resulting in exposure to an additional 175,000 people.

The Brem Foundation's commitment to empowering women with breast health education is evidenced by the growing success of the "Check Out My Rack" webinars and web-based education. Future studies will evaluate the efficacy of these increasingly popular programs in terms of breast cancer detection.