Doctors at Wake Forest Baptist Health have developed an iPad app that assists in colon cancer screening tests. The software puts some decision-making power into patients’ hands. 

It’s called mobile Patient Technology for Health - or mPATH-CRC for short. It lets patients “self-order” a colon cancer screening test while they’re in the waiting room. 

Colon cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., but over one-third of those eligible to be screened don't get the test.

The National Cancer Institute has awarded $1.6 million in grant funds for further testing of the technology in clinics across North Carolina and Kentucky.

Dr. David Miller is a professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine, and a leading researcher on the study. 

“What this grant funding will let us do is figure out how to get this iPad intervention — which we know works, we know it doubles the chance that people will complete colon cancer screening tests — and actually get it put into routine use in primary care practices,” says Miller.

Miller also says that the mPATH-CRC application is an extension, not a replacement, for a physician’s advice.