Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Don’t call her the patron saint of colon screening -- at least not yet. But when the Today show’s Katie Couric underwent colonoscopy on national television, some U.S. healthcare providers saw colon screening rates among the general population increase by up to 20% in the following months.
That’s the conclusion of a study out this week that we’re featuring in our Virtual Colonoscopy Digital Community. Researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa said the phenomenon, dubbed the "Katie Couric effect," is a powerful example of the impact that celebrities can have on important public health issues.
The researchers examined colonoscopy rates before and after the Today show aired a weeklong series on colon screening starring Couric, whose husband died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 42. After reviewing colon screening rates in thousands of subjects across 22 states, they found a significant rise following the Today show episode.
Whether the added publicity benefited virtual colonoscopy is unknown, as the study didn’t specifically measure virtual colonoscopy screening (Couric received one of those in March 2002). It is telling, though, that one of the authors said that celebrity endorsement was especially needed for a test as "invasive" and "uncomfortable" as conventional colonoscopy. Could less-invasive virtual colonoscopy have an edge here? Patient polls are leaning that way.
Healthcare providers might also find that celebrity exposure can be a double-edged sword when the celebrities veer from current evidence-based medical guidelines. Go to http://vc.auntminnie.com for the rest of the story.
In another virtual colonoscopy article we’re featuring this week, Hong Kong researchers investigated the use of MRI rather than CT for collecting virtual colonoscopy data. They discovered that while the RARE protocol has some advantages, their technique still had a few bugs to iron out. Read all about it in our Virtual Colonoscopy Digital Community, at http://vc.auntminnie.com.
