Prevention/Care Management, 2006

Stony Brook University School of Medicine

February 2006

Stony Brook School of Medicine in New York has been working since 2002 on outreach to primary care doctors about colorectal cancer screening. AHRQ's Step-by-Step Guide to Delivering Clinical Preventive Services is provided to physicians, along with a workbook containing other materials specific to colorectal cancer screening that are part of a continuing medical education (CME) program.

Physician trainers help the clinicians assess barriers and determine how their protocols, such as reminder systems and office arrangement, are affecting colorectal cancer screening performance rates.

"The AHRQ Step-by-Step Guide is a ready-made, high-quality, self-instructional resource for improving office systems that we could use in conjunction with the other components of our physician educational intervention," says Dorothy S. Lane, MD, MPH, Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education and Distinguished Service Professor of Preventive Medicine.

Evaluation is conducted through initial baseline and post program surveys of physicians and pre- and post-intervention chart audits. Thirty-five offices received the guide in addition to the personal intervention. Seventy-two offices were only mailed the guide and the CME workbook as a self-instructional activity and received no other intervention. Another group of "control" physicians did not receive any of these intervention materials or visits.

Evaluation and data analysis are currently in progress to determine which group of physicians and their patients had the most colorectal cancer screenings.

Stony Brook University School of Medicine is located in Stony Brook, New York.

Impact Case Study Identifier: CP3 06-04
AHRQ-Sponsored Activities: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), Put Prevention Into Practice (PPIP)
AHRQ Product: Implementation Guide
Topic(s): Prevention
Scope: New York

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