ESTIMATING CANCER SCREENING INDICATORS IN THE PRIMARY-CARE SETTING

The software ''Profile: A Cancer Risk Profile of Your Patient Practice '' was used to estimate cancer screening activities in a primary care practice. ''Profile'' is a public health tool that does not track the screening histories of individual patients, but rather; using a sampli ng strategy, provides estimates for the entire practice of the age and sex specific number of screening eligible patients, the number screen ed, and the number that should have been screened, based on National C ancer Institute/American Cancer Society (NCI/ACS) guidelines. This rep ort describes ''Profile,'' and the results it generated from a sample of medical records. Primary care providers who seek to integrate prima ry and secondary cancer prevention activities into their routine pract ices will find it useful to have an objective estimate of their curren t level of such activities.