ideasIdea
Send screening invitations with a pre-booked time, not a request to call
Uptake rises when the invitation comes with a booked appointment and text reminders. Make that the default in every screening programme.
Timed appointments, SMS reminders, and GP endorsement each raise screening uptake by several percentage points in trials. Propose a national standard: every invitation carries a default booked slot with easy rebooking, GP-endorsed letters, and two SMS reminders.
Hypothesis
Default slots plus reminders raise uptake by at least 8 percentage points overall and 12 points in the most deprived quintile.
Rationale
Behavioural defaults; multiple randomised trials in UK breast and bowel screening.
What would test it
Programme-level A/B testing at scale, feasible in most call/recall systems.
Maturity
being tested at scale
Who has to act
policy
Cost to try
Small (under $1M)
Years to first evidence
1
Bottlenecks it attacks
- Prevention we already have is not deployed · Around four in ten cancers are preventable with tools we already own: vaccines, tobacco control, weight, alcohol, sun and infection control.