New resources to assist practices and PHN’s identify at risk patients and measure screening rates
On average, one in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with a form of cancer during their lifetime. Cancer is now the largest cause of disease in Australia, surpassing cardiovascular disease (Cancer Institute NSW).
Improving cancer screening rates and reducing cancer risk amongst our population is a key priority area for Primary Health Networks (PHN’s) and general practices.
In particular, PHN’s have been charged with developing cancer screening and prevention programs that aim to improve participation in the three national screening programs: cervical, breast and bowel.
Did you know?
- 93% of bowel cancer is found in people over 50 years. Therefore, bowel cancer screening is recommended for men and women aged 50 years and over.
- 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime; 90% will have no family history of breast cancer . The breast screening guidelines recommend that women aged 50-74 years have a screening mammogram every two years.
- The National Cervical Screening Program is expected to change from 1 December 2017 to improve early detection. The current 2 yearly Pap test will change to a 5 yearly ‘Cervical Screening test’ for women aged 25-74. Visit Department of Health website for more information. Current cervical screening guidelines recommend all women aged 18 – 69 years who have ever been sexually active should have a Pap test every two years, even if they have received the HPV vaccine.
Train IT Medical has developed resources to help practices and PHN’s measure cancer screening rates and thereby identify high risk patients who may not have been screened. The resources are relevant for practices using MedicalDirector or Best Practice software (Bp Premier).
Data Entry Instructions
Cancer screening data should be entered into the Investigations/Results area for both BP Premier and MedicalDirector Clinical when a particular result is received by a practice. The result must be appropriately labelled for it to be included in search queries and easily extracted. Detailed instructions on how to do this are included below:
| MedicalDirector
|
BP Premier
|
|
| Enter bowel screening result | Summary Sheet | Summary Sheet |
| Enter cervical screening result | Summary Sheet | Summary Sheet |
| Enter breast screening result | Summary Sheet | Summary Sheet |
BP Premier – Extracting Cancer Screening Metrics
– FREE OFFER for our VIP clients –
The database search function in BP Premier allows the creation of customised queries that are then stored on your computer for regular use. Train IT Medical is able to create customised SQL queries and as a special offer for our Train IT Medical clients, subscribers and website visitors we have created the following queries and will share these for free for use by practices and PHN staff.
Contact us: [email protected] if you are interested in receiving any of the following specially written Best Practice sql database queries:
Cervical Cancer Screening
- Female Patients 18-69 years with Pap test recorded over 2 years ago.
- Female Patients 18-69 years with Pap test recorded within past 2 years.
- Female Patients 18-69 years with no Pap test recorded.
Breast Cancer Screening
- Female Patients 50-74 years with Mammogram recorded over 2 years ago.
- Female Patients 50-74 years with Mammogram recorded within past 2 years.
- Female Patients 50-74 years with no Mammogram recorded.
Bowel Cancer Screening
- Patients 50-74 years with FOBT recorded over 2 years ago.
- Patients 50-74 years with FOBT recorded within past 2 years.
- Patients 50-74 years with no FOBT recorded.
MedicalDirector
It is possible to extract cervical screening data from the database search function in MedicalDirector.
Download the following files for detailed instructions:
At this stage it is not possible to extract bowel and mammogram screening data directly from MedicalDirector Clinical. For these specific, advanced searches a separate extract tool will be required.
The Train IT Medical team regularly trains on data improvements. On 20 March, 2017 Train IT Medical Principal Katrina Otto will be speaking at NEMPHN Primary Care Practice Managers Conference on
‘Digital Health Innovation: Data aggregation and maximising data for business and clinical quality improvement’.
Keep an eye out for our next blog where we will share that presentation plus plenty of Pen CAT free learning resources.
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Friendly Reminder for NSW General Practices: Free eLearning Resource 
NSW Cancer Institute & Train IT Medical have created free eLearning courses for NSW practices using MedicalDirector and Best Practice Software related to identifying at-risk patients and implementing an effective Pap Test Electronic Reminder System. Read more here: NSW Cancer Institute & Train IT Medical Project
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Further Information
National Cervical Screening Program website (DOH)
National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (DOH)
Breastscreen Australia
Cancer Institute
Cancer Australia
Australian Cancer Research Foundation
RACGP Red Book (see section 9: Early detection of cancers)
This week’s blog was written by Sue Cummins, Senior Trainer & Project Manager, Train IT Medical