(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Do you forget to schedule those doctor appointments
on a regular basis? A reminder program may lead to more women to scheduling
regular mammograms.
In an effort to screen for breast cancer when it is most treatable, the study by
Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research found a reminder program, using
electronic health records, to identify women who would soon be due for a
mammogram. The women were then notified using post cards, automated voice
message and personal phone calls. The study found this increased mammography
rates by more than 17 percent.
The study had employees using Kaiser Permanente’s electronic health records
database identify women, ages 50-69, who had not had a mammogram for 20 months.
Starting in January 2006, the women where sent a post card letting them know
they would soon be due for another mammogram. If they did not make an
appointment by the next month, they received and automated reminder call. After
each month, if the woman did not set up an appointment, another automated
reminder call followed. Within 10 months of their first reminder, more than 75
percent of these women had completed their mammograms, compared to only 63.4
percent before the program started. After the second year of the reminder
program, 80.6 percent of women had completed their mammograms.
“We know mammograms are effective, but too many women put them off, even if they
have health insurance,” Adrianne Felstein, M.D., M.S., an investigator at Kaiser
Permanente’s Center for Health Research was quoted saying. “This study is the
first to show that these reminder programs can be effective in such a large
group of women. If we could improve the country’s mammography rate by the same
amount, we could detect as many as 25,000 additional cases of breast cancer each
year.”
SOURCE: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, August 2009
