Reducing inappropriate PSA-based prostate cancer screening in men age 75 or older with a highly specific computerized clinical decision support tool.

Abstract

233 Background: The value of PSA-based screening for prostate cancer is a topic of intense debate, however the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) national clinical policy is to use age as a proxy for life expectancy and avoid screening in men ≥ age 75. To facilitate this we developed and implemented a highly specific computerized clinical decision support (CCDS) reminder to remind providers of current guidelines, at the moment of entering an inappropriate PSA order. Methods: We defined screening PSA as: any PSA ordered on men excluding those a) with a diagnosis of existing malignant prostate disease or “elevated prostate specific antigen”, b) who are using either enhancers or suppressors of testosterone, or d) who had a PSA of 2.5ng/ml or greater on either of the two most recent PSA tests. We measured PSA-based prostate cancer screening rates using this definition and on a monthly basis from 07/2011 to 07/2013. Using an interrupted time-series design, we turned the reminder on from 6/2012-8/2012 and then again from 1/2013-4/2013. Results: There were a total of 24,705 men eligible for screening during the two year period of analysis and 1,524 men who were screened. The mean screening rate during the 12 months prior to the study period was 7.8% among men, and during the 12 months of the intervention period it was 4.3%. During the 12 month baseline period the screening rate declined by 29.3%. During the two periods when the CCDS tool was turned on the screening rate feel by 59.7% and 29.8%, whereas during the two periods when it was off, it rose by 84.3% and 18.4%. Conclusions: The overall reduction in screening rate before and after the intervention period is likely substantially confounded by the secular event of the May, 2012 release of the USPSTF grade D recommendation against all PSA-based screening and its substantial media coverage. Despite this, the striking correlation between rate of change in screening rate and the turning on and off of the CCDS tool, suggests that this highly specific CCDS tool was able to reduce inappropriate PSA-based screening, even in an era of significant public discussion of the merits of PSA-based prostate cancer screening.