Evaluating the impact of electronic reminders for primary care physicians on lung cancer-screening rates.
5 affiliations
- 1Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.
- 2Department of Medicine, Quantitative Sciences Unit, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.
- 3Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, Calif.
- 4Division of Primary Care and Population Health, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.
- 5Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, Calif.
Abstract
Objective
We evaluated the impact of electronic reminders for primary care physicians (PCPs) on lung cancer screening (LCS) rates.Methods
The LCS Health Maintenance Due is an electronic health record-integrated tool that alerts PCPs when patients are due for low-dose computed tomography. Eligible patients were assigned a dynamic screening status on the basis of time since last imaging of the chest. Patients assigned as Not Due, Due Soon, or Due On at rollout were categorized as Baseline Screened, whereas those assigned as Overdue were categorized as Baseline Overdue. We retrospectively evaluated LCS rates at 1 year after rollout and evaluated factors associated with up to date screening status.Results
Among 8346 eligible patients, 779 (9.3%) were assigned to the Baseline Screened group and 7567 (91%) to the Baseline Overdue group. LCS rates increased from 9.3% at rollout to 16% at 1 year (P < .001). Among patients in the Baseline Screened group, 396 (51%) maintained up to date screening at 1 year, with older age associated with greater odds of remaining up to date (odds ratio [OR], 1.53; P = .003). Among patients in the Baseline Overdue group, 963 (13%) achieved up to date screening at 1 year. Family history of cancer (OR, 2.0; P = .005) was associated with increased odds of screening, whereas greater travel distance (>50 vs <15 miles: OR, 0.38; P < .001), Medicaid/Medi-Cal insurance (OR, 0.58; P < .001), and patients who actively smoke (OR, 0.81; P = .007) were associated with lower odds of becoming up to date.Conclusions
EHR-integrated electronic reminders for PCPs were associated with significantly increased LCS uptake at 1 year, supporting scalable system-level interventions to improve LCS rates.
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BibTeX
@article{kamtam2026evaluating,
title = {{Evaluating the impact of electronic reminders for primary care physicians on lung cancer-screening rates.}},
author = {Devanish N Kamtam and Carolyn C Chang and Yingjie Weng and Irmina A Elliott and Brandon Guenthart and Douglas Z Liou and Leah M Backhus and Mark F Berry and Joseph B Shrager and Anuradha J Phadke and Summer Han and Natalie S Lui},
journal = {JTCVS open},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1016/j.xjon.2026.102060},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42948140},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Evaluating the impact of electronic reminders for primary care physicians on lung cancer-screening rates.
AU - Devanish N Kamtam
AU - Carolyn C Chang
AU - Yingjie Weng
AU - Irmina A Elliott
AU - Brandon Guenthart
AU - Douglas Z Liou
AU - Leah M Backhus
AU - Mark F Berry
AU - Joseph B Shrager
AU - Anuradha J Phadke
AU - Summer Han
AU - Natalie S Lui
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/17
JO - JTCVS open
DO - 10.1016/j.xjon.2026.102060
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42948140
AB - Objective We evaluated the impact of electronic reminders for primary care physicians (PCPs) on lung cancer screening (LCS) rates.Methods The LCS Health Maintenance Due is an electronic health record-integrated tool that alerts PCPs when patients are due for low-dose computed tomography. Eligible patients were assigned a dynamic screening status on the basis of time since last imaging of the chest. Patients assigned as Not Due, Due Soon, or Due On at rollout were categorized as Baseline Screened, whereas those assigned as Overdue were categorized as Baseline Overdue. We retrospectively evaluated LCS rates at 1 year after rollout and evaluated factors associated with up to date screening status.Results Among 8346 eligible patients, 779 (9.3%) were assigned to the Baseline Screened group and 7567 (91%) to the Baseline Overdue group. LCS rates increased from 9.3% at rollout to 16% at 1 year (P < .001). Among patients in the Baseline Screened group, 396 (51%) maintained up to date screening at 1 year, with older age associated with greater odds of remaining up to date (odds ratio [OR], 1.53; P = .003). Among patients in the Baseline Overdue group, 963 (13%) achieved up to date screening at 1 year. Family history of cancer (OR, 2.0; P = .005) was associated with increased odds of screening, whereas greater travel distance (>50 vs <15 miles: OR, 0.38; P < .001), Medicaid/Medi-Cal insurance (OR, 0.58; P < .001), and patients who actively smoke (OR, 0.81; P = .007) were associated with lower odds of becoming up to date.Conclusions EHR-integrated electronic reminders for PCPs were associated with significantly increased LCS uptake at 1 year, supporting scalable system-level interventions to improve LCS rates.
SN - 2666-2736
ER -