Tracking needs, increasing awareness, and supporting decisions: 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 use of appropriate and timely screening and adequate follow-up and care coordination. Recognizing the importance of cancer screening, groups like the American Cancer Society and the United States Preventative Services Task Force have developed cancer-screening guidelines. The long-term goal of this project is to increase breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening rates by developing a two-pronged, consumer and provider-based application that is a guideline-based cancer screening decision support and tracking system that will provide cancer screening decision support to the general public and physicians; 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 relevant patient education materials. The technical objectives for this Phase II proposal are to 1) continue developing and refining system features related to cancer screening tracking and decision support; 2) develop integration solutions to allow this product to co-exist with other commercial EHR systems; and 3) evaluate the consumer-based and provider based products to assess their usability, acceptability, and effectiveness at increasing cancer screening guideline adherence