Wake Forest Baptist Health Unveils New Colon Cancer Screening App

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.