8 hours Ago
A University of Rochester Medical Center study showed that downtime in the emergency room can have a potential upside for women who are behind on cervical cancer screenings, which is a nationwide problem. Researchers approached women between ages 21 and 65 while they were in the ER as patients for a variety of health problems, as they waited for test results or a medical consultation. The patients agreed to answer questions about cervical cancer screening on a portable tablet-style computer and enroll in a clinical study.
Researchers then referred the women to local screening services. Some also received motivational text message reminders, which helped to boost the number of women who followed up with screening on their own time. The study enrolled nearly 1,100 ER patients who were not up to date on screenings-and results showed that twice as many women went ahead and got their cervical cancer screenings within 150 days compared to historical norms.
Senior Investigator David Adler, MD, MPH, professor of Emergency Medicine and a member of Wilmot Cancer Institute's Cancer Prevention and Control research program, emphasized the study's low-cost, efficient approach to increasing the cancer screenings. Whether it's cervical cancer, lung cancer, or colorectal cancer, the emergency department environment is a rich place to approach people and develop ways to prompt them to get screened and prevent cancer. This is normally the purview of primary care doctors, but we have a lot of patients who either don't have a doctor or aren't in regular contact with their primary care team.
" David Adler, MD, MPH, Senior Investigator The study, published in Academic Emergency Medicine , helps to close the gap for those who are eligible for cervical cancer screenings but have not stayed up to date-a territory dubbed "the Last Mile Problem" by the National Cancer Institute, which funded the research. The project is especially important for the Rochester region, which has higher cancer rates compared to national and New York state rates, and where Wilmot is investing in prevention and community outreach. Why is cervical cancer screening important? If it's not caught early, cervical cancer can be deadly.
The five-year survival rate for women with cervical cancer in the earliest stages is 91 percent, but this drops to 19 percent when cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Related Stories Circular RNA plays key role in cancer biology and therapy Unraveling the genetic differences between LUAD and LUSC in lung cancer Researchers develop magnetic nanoparticles for precise cancer treatment Cervical cancer screening is a cornerstone of preventative health, with decades of research behind it. A pap test or HPV test can help find pre-cancerous changes in the cervix and prevent cancer from developing.
"There's no doubt that screening saves lives. No one should be dying of cervical cancer," said Beau Abar, PhD, an emergency medicine investigator who collaborated with Adler. Conducting research in a busy emergency department A primary goal of the study was to make sure it did not slow the pace of regular emergency services.
An innovative team at UR known as Emergency Department Research Associates ran the study, under the guidance of Adler and Abar. The program has been in operation for more than 25 years at Strong Memorial Hospital with training to enroll patients in emergency department-based clinical trials without interfering with health care. This project took place at Strong Hospital's large emergency facility in Rochester, a Level 1 trauma center, and at Noyes Memorial Hospital's smaller emergency room in Dansville, NY.
Noyes serves rural residents in the Southern Tier region and is affiliated with the University of Rochester and Wilmot. Researchers randomly assigned women into one of two groups: The first group received standard verbal and written recommendations to get screened and a referral for services; the second group also received text-message reminders such as: "Our goal is to do what we can to keep you healthy. One way we can do that is to help make sure you are up to date with your cervical cancer screening.
" During the next five months, researchers discovered that 20 percent of the first group of women went for a screening test and 23 percent of the text message group received screening. This is at least twice the typical rate of screening uptake during this interval, according to historical control data. (Women did not receive pap tests and/or HPV tests during wait times in the emergency room-it was up to each person to seek the testing elsewhere.
) "We understand that we are not going to get everyone that needs to be screened," Adler said, "but every person who does get screened is a win." Adler's team designed the project to be suitable for emergency departments elsewhere, and a larger, multicenter study is the next goal. Meanwhile, they are working on a smaller study focusing solely on the HPV test as a form of cervical cancer screening.
The idea is to have patients swab themselves in the bathroom during an ER visit, like providing a urine sample. Roche Diagnostics is supporting that project. University of Rochester Medical Center Adler, D.
, et al . (2025). Low‐cost interventions to increase uptake of cervical cancer screening among emergency department patients: Results of a randomized clinical trial.
Academic Emergency Medicine . doi.org/10.
1111/acem.15101 ..
