Text Or Phone for Participation in bowel cancer Screening (TOPPS) - University College London
Nearly 43,000 people each year are diagnosed with bowel cancer, making it the fourth most common cancer in the UK with 1 in 15 men and 1 in 18 women being diagnosed with bowel cancer during their lifetime (Bowel Cancer UK, 2023). It is a disease that predominantly affects people over 50 with 94% of new cases being in that demographic. Despite being the fourth most common cancer, it is the second biggest cancer killer in the UK, with more than 16,800 people dying each year (Bowel Cancer UK, 2023). That being said, a vast majority of people survive bowel cancer if it is diagnosed at its earliest stage, making it treatable and curable if diagnosed early and therefore different methods should be trialled and introduced, dependent on their effectiveness and value for money to improve uptake of screening.
The Text Or Phone for Participation in bowel cancer Screening (TOPPS) project, commissioned by University College London, seeks to determine the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of text message reminders and patient navigation telephone calls in increasing the uptake of bowel cancer screening amongst non-responders.
Why should I get my practice involved?
As healthcare professionals, we have a shared goal to advance healthcare as we know it and make positive change happen for others.
The primary aim of the project is to provide enough data to University College London to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of text message reminders and telephone calls in increasing bowel cancer screening uptake amongst non-responders.
How will it work?
- The programme will consist of creating an Engagement Hub via the iPLATO Population Health Service.
- A total of 2,703 eligible patients will be identified by NHS Digital and provided to iPLATO via encrypted cloud-based transfer on a weekly basis.
- The data will be split into 3 groups of 901 patients, one of which will be sent a text at week 13 and subsequently at week 15, 17 and 19 if there is no response.
- The second group will be sent a text at week 13 and subsequently will receive a phone call at week 15, 17 and 19.
- The third group will not be contacted by us.
Data Processing and Data Sharing Summary
- The Bowel Screening Hub will send iPLATO a list of NHS numbers and practice codes of eligible patients on a weekly basis.
- These NHS numbers and ODS of registered practice will be used to remotely extract patient mobile phone numbers, names and date of births directly from the PDS via the FHIR API/ from the clinical system of their practice through a secure connection.
- All data is processed within the HSCN network.
- iPLATO Healthcare acts as a Data Processor for this service.
- iPLATO shall implement and maintain, at its cost and expense, appropriate technical and organisational measures in relation to its processing of Patient Data so as to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risks that are presented by the processing.