Utilisation of primary care electronic patient records for identification and targeted invitation of individuals to a lung cancer screening programme. (November 2022) - Dickson, Jennifer L.
Highlights: Primary care records can identify individuals to invite for lung cancer screening risk assessment. Invitation eligibility should use current and historic smoking status recording. Direct eligibility assessment from primary care data is impracticable with some demographic bias. LCS programmes require provision for individual-level eligibility assessment. Work is needed to identify those without smoking status in primary care records. Abstract: Lung cancer screening (LCS) eligibility is largely determined by tobacco consumption. Primary care smoking data could guide LCS invitation and eligibility assessment. We present observational data from the SUMMIT Study, where individual self-reported smoking status was concordant with primary care records in 75.3%. However, 10.3% demonstrated inconsistencies between historic and most recent smoking status documentation. Quantified tobacco consumption was frequently missing, precluding direct LCS eligibility assessment. Primary care recorded "ever-smoker" status, encompassing both recent and historic documentation, can be used to target LCS invitation. Identifying those with missing or erroneous "never-smoker" smoking status is crucial for equitable invitation to LCS.