A Guideline Based Tool for Increasing Cancer Screening Rates

Breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer can be successfully prevented and or diagnosed and successfully treated at the earliest stages through the use of appropriate and timely screening as well as adequate followup and care coordination. Recognizing the importance of cancer screening, groups such as the American Cancer Society and the United States Preventative Services Task Force have developed various cancer screening guidelines. The long-term goal of this study is to increase breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening rates by developing a guideline-based cancer screening decision support and tracking system that will provide cancer screening decision support, a tracking system that allows physicians to follow patients as they progress through the screening continuum , a feedback report that alerts physicians to the status of their practice 's screening rates, and finally, relevant patient education/edutainment materials. The technical objectives for this Phase I proposal are to 1) gather user interface and system function requirements via patient focus groups, provider interviews, and expert panel; 2) develop a web-based working prototype system following user-centric and object-oriented software development methodologies; and 3) evaluate the prototype by patients as well as primary care providers in a pilot study in terms of clinical usefulness, system usability, and acceptability.