Share your details and we'll email you our Publication
Authors:
Ran Goshen
Eran N. Choman
Ayelet Ran
Efrat Muller
Revital Kariv
Gabriel Chodick
Nachman Ash
Steven Narod
Varda Shalev
Title
Computer-assisted flagging of individuals at high risk of colorectal cancer in a large health maintenance organization using the colonflag
Purpose
To evaluate in a sample of adults who had been noncompliant with colorectal cancer
(CRC) screening whether screening could be enhanced by an automated patient recall system
based on identifying high-risk individuals using the ColonFlag test and an electronic medical
record database.
Methods
A total of 79,671 individuals who were determined to be non-compliant with current
screening recommendations were identified in the Maccabi Health Services program in Israel.
Their cancer risk was determined by ColonFlag using information on age, sex, and CBC results.
Doctors of individuals who were flagged as high risk were notified and asked to follow up with
their patients.
Results
The ColonFlag identified 688 men and women who scored in the highest 0.87 percentile.
Of these individuals, 254 had colonoscopies performed by Maccabi physicians, and 19 CRCs
(7.5%) were found. An additional 15 cancers primarily identified outside of Maccabi were found
through code matching.
Conclusions
The ColonFlag test is a rapid, efficient, and inexpensive test that can be applied to
scan electronic medical records to identify individuals at high risk of CRC who would otherwise
avoid screening.
