title: Computerized reminders for five preventive screening tests: generation of patient-specific letters incorporating physician preferences.
abstract: Compliance with preventive screening tests is inadequate in the United States. We describe a computer based system for generating reminder letters to patients who may have missed their indicated screening tests because they do not visit a provider regularly or missed their tests despite the fact that they do visit a provider. We started with national recommendations and generated a local consensus for test indications. We then used this set of indications and our electronic record to determine test deficiencies in our pilot pool of 3073 patients. The computer generated customized reminder letters targeting several tests. Physicians chose any patients who should not receive letters. The response rate for fecal occult blood (FOB) testing was 33% compared with an 18% historical compliance rate within the same community. FOB reminders generated improved test compliance. Test execution must be considered when commencing a program of screening test reminders.
authors.affiliation: UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Buchanan
mesh_terms: D003201:Computers; D003205:Computing Methodologies; D015709:Correspondence as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017010:Reminder Systems