September 14, 2019 | KYW

How Text Messaging Is Helping Prevent Colon Cancer, Expert Explains

Not everyone who signs up for a colonoscopy actually shows up, but a local doctor explains how a simple tactic is helping change that.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in this country, a colonoscopy can detect problems, but people just don't like having the procedure.

Dr. Shivan Mehta associate chief innovation officer at Penn Medicine says up to 15% of patients who schedule colonoscopies are no-shows. So his group decided to nudge people with text messages.

“A lot of people don't answer their phones anymore. It's not so surprising because it's not clear whose gonna call you,” he said. “There's a lot of those automated phone calls out there and because of that we thought about the fact that we all use text message in our lives to communicate with people. It has great advantages, which is that it is asynchronous, so you don't have to answer right away but can respond when you're ready.”

Mehta says that he has found that sending informative and motivational text messages dramatically improved the number of people who showed up.

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