When you set a goal, you want to have several milestones and benchmarks mapped out beforehand so you can perform regular assessments to determine whether you are on track to make your goal. Colon cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, but it is also one of the most preventable cancers when people choose to have colon cancer screenings at doctor-recommended intervals.
One goal in the StopColonCancerNow community is 80% by 2018. This means that by 2018, we would like to see 80 percent of all eligible individuals screened for colon cancer. It was just last October when GIQuIC announced that the registry had reached two million cases. This would dramatically decrease colon cancer incidence and colon cancer death.
The GI Quality Improvement Consortium, Ltd., (GIQuIC) has just announced that more than 3 million colonoscopy cases have been added to the registry. We are pleased to share that StopColonCancerNow has 81 centers in the registry which are all committed to giving the highest quality care to patients.
As information about colonoscopies are logged and compiled, it is imperative to have quality data about patients and doctors. One of the most essential quality measures for physicians is adenoma detection rate (ADR). This refers to the proportion of individuals undergoing a complete screening colonoscopy who have had one or more ademomas or polyps detected. The higher the ADR, the more adenomas and polyps the physician finds per colonoscopy.
How important is a physician's ADR? Actually, it is quite important. For every 1 percent increase in a doctor’s ADR, your risk of developing colon cancer over the next three years decreases by 3 percent. When you interview doctors to perform your colonoscopy, remember that doctors with high ADRs find more polyps, and their patients are less likely to get cancer.
Please talk to your doctor about the proper timing for your next colonoscopy, and ask about ADR. Your physician’s ADR should be at least 25 percent for men and 15 percent for women.