Many guidelines recommend that adults older than 50 years be screened for colon cancer. Screening tests can help find cancer earlier and decrease the chance of dying from this disease. Unfortunately, as many as 1 in 3 people do not get screened for colon cancer. There are many reasons for this. Doctors may be too busy to discuss all of the options and answer patients' questions. Some patients may be too embarrassed to be screened or may be against it. Different communication methods and ways of ordering these tests are needed to help increase the number of patients who get screened.

To see if an iPad health app that educated patients about different options for colon cancer screening and allowed them to choose the test they wanted would increase the rate of testing.

450 patients (aged 50 to 74 years) who were due for a colon cancer screening test and had an appointment to see their primary care doctor. The study was done in 6 community-based clinics that were associated with a health system in North Carolina.

The researchers identified primary care patients who were due for colon cancer screening. Patients who were interested in participating were asked to come to their appointment 45 to 60 minutes early in order to join the study. They were randomly assigned to the colon cancer education group or control group. The colon cancer education group viewed an iPad app that provided information about different screening options, and they were able to “order” either a colonoscopy or a test that looked for blood in the stool. This information was given to the doctor before the visit. Patients also could have the app send them text message or e-mail reminders to help complete the screening test after the visit. The control group watched a video about diet and exercise. They were not given information about colon cancer screening before the visit, and they did not have the option to order their own screening test. Both groups answered questions about what type of colon cancer screening test they preferred, whether they planned to get screened, and whether they had discussed screening with the doctor during the visit. The researchers looked at medical charts and other information to see if patients had a colon cancer screening test within 6 months after the doctor visit.

Nearly all patients in the colon cancer education group could say which screening test they would like to have. Test ordering and discussions about screening happened more often in the education group than the control group. Researchers found that the colon cancer education group was 2 times as likely to have the test done than the control group (30% vs. 15%).

The study enrolled only patients who spoke English.

An iPad health app that allows patients to order tests can help increase rates of colon cancer screening. However, rates were still low (around 30%).

许多指南建议对50岁以上的成年人进行结肠癌筛查。筛查测试可以帮助您及早发现癌症，并减少死于这种疾病的机会。不幸的是，多达三分之一的人没有接受结肠癌筛查。这件事情是由很多原因导致的。医生可能太忙而无法讨论所有选项并回答患者的问题。有些患者可能太尴尬而无法接受筛查或反对。需要不同的通信方法和订购这些测试的方式来帮助增加接受筛查的患者数量。

看看是否有一个iPad健康应用程序能够教育患者有关结肠癌筛查的不同选择并允许他们选择他们想要的检测方法，将会提高检测的速度。

450例患者（年龄在50至74岁之间）应接受结肠癌筛查测试，并预约看望其初级保健医生。该研究是在北卡罗来纳州与卫生系统相关的6个社区诊所进行的。

研究人员确定了应进行结肠癌筛查的初级保健患者。有兴趣参加的患者被要求提前45至60分钟参加预约以参加研究。他们被随机分配到结肠癌教育组或对照组。结肠癌教育小组查看了一个iPad应用程序，该应用程序提供了有关不同筛查选项的信息，他们能够“订购”结肠镜检查或在粪便中寻找血液的检测。该信息在拜访之前已提供给医生。患者还可以让该应用向他们发送短信或电子邮件提醒，以帮助他们在拜访后完成筛查测试。对照组观看了有关饮食和运动的视频。他们在拜访之前没有获得有关结肠癌筛查的信息，并且他们没有选择订购自己的筛查测试的选项。两组都回答了有关他们首选哪种类型的结肠癌筛查测试，是否计划进行筛查以及在就诊期间是否与医生讨论过筛查的问题。研究人员查看了病历表和其他信息，以查看患者在就诊后的6个月内是否进行了结肠癌筛查测试。

结肠癌教育小组中的几乎所有患者都可以说他们想要进行哪种筛查测试。测试组和关于筛查的讨论在教育组中比对照组发生的更多。研究人员发现，结肠癌教育组完成测试的可能性是对照组的2倍（30％比15％）。

该研究仅招募说英语的患者。

允许患者订购测试的iPad健康应用程序可以帮助提高结肠癌筛查的速度。但是，费率仍然很低（大约30％）。