Physician’s awareness and practices toward colorectal cancer screening guidelines.
431 Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cancer with an estimated incidence of 72,090 men and 70,480 women and a cause specific mortality of 51,370 in 2010. Despite promotion of CRC screening by various professional societies ACG /AGA and USPSTF, there seems to be an under utilization of screening colonoscopy for unclear reasons. We aimed to study the awareness of physicians towards CRC screening across various levels of training in different specialities. Methods: A survey questionnaire of 16 questions, assessing awareness of CRC screening guidelines was provided to 100 physicians in our academic medical center who are at various levels of training in Primary Care Group (PCG comprising residents, attending physicians in Internal Medicine and Family Medicine) and Specialty Group (SG comprising fellows, attending physicians in Gastroenterology). Results: Out of 100 questionnaires, we received 59 responses (50 PCG and 9 SG) which are included in the results. About 54% of the study group followed CRC guidelines (32% USPSTF CRC screening guidelines compared to 22 % ACG/AGA guidelines) and 46% did not. All the physicians who did not follow the guidelines belonged to the PCG. Most common screening modality chosen was colonoscopy alone (46% PCG and 100% SG), followed by colonoscopy with FOBT (36% PCG), FOBT (12% PCG) and 3% PCG answered barium enema along with FOBT/ sigmoidoscopy. A 100% response from both SG and PCG was obtained for commencing screening colonoscopy at 50 years of age but only 27% of the PCG compared to 80% SG were aware of the screening cessation guidelines. Interestingly a vast majority of the study group (88%) text messaging as a better way of reminder to improve compliance compared to phone calls and postal letters. About 72% of the respondents themselves would want colonoscopy as screening modality compared to 17% for FOBT and 7% for sigmoidoscopy. An overwhelming majority of the study group (80% of both PCG and SG) felt the need for continued education in regards to guidelines for screening in didactic sessions. Conclusions: Despite clear guidelines for screening colonoscopy, we found a significant lack of awareness amongst PCG compared to SG, and our study emphasizes the need for continued education.