The impact of a physician intervention program on older women's mammography use

The Mammography Optimum Referral Effort (MORE) is a physician office-based intervention program initiated by the Connecticut Peer Review Organization (CPRO) to increase mammography use among older women in Connecticut. Three locales in the state were targeted for the MORE intervention based on identified low mammography rates in women aged 65 years and older. Thirty-seven physicians participated from March 1, 1996, to August 31, 1996. Annual mammography rates were derived by merging Medicare Part B mammography claims with a database from the Connecticut Tumor Registry. This strategy allowed us to exclude women with a prior history of breast cancer from the analysis, in order to estimate screening rates. The MORE intervention was associated with an absolute increase of 5.9%, which represents a relative increase of 15.4%, in annual mammography use. Our findings suggest that a multifaceted physician intervention is capable of increasing mammography use among older women.