Complementary and Alternative Medicine in an Integrated Health Care Delivery System: Users of Chiropractic, Acupuncture, and Massage Services.

Introduction: Complementary and alternative medicine research has relied primarily on survey data from community populations rather than from patient populations receiving these services in integrated health care delivery systems (IHDS).

Objectives: To describe patients seeking chiropractic, acupuncture, or massage therapy in a dedicated Center for Complementary Medicine (CCM) within an IHDS.

Methods: Patient surveys at the initial CCM visit included chief complaint, prior treatments, and relief with treatment (0% to 100% relief).

Toward a trustworthy voice: increasing the effectiveness of automated outreach calls to promote colorectal cancer screening among African Americans.

Introduction: Colorectal cancer screening rates are lower among African-American members of Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO) than among members of other races and ethnicities. This study evaluated use of a linguistically congruent voice in interactive voice response outreach calls about colorectal cancer screening as a strategy to increase call completion and response.

Methods: After an initial discussion group to assess cultural acceptability of the project, 6 focus groups were conducted with 33 KPCO African-American members.

Breast cancer screening in an insured population: whom are we missing?

Introduction: Kaiser Permanente Colorado is an integrated health care system that uses automatic reminder programs and reduces barriers to access preventive services, including financial barriers. Breast cancer screening rates have not improved during the last five years, and rates differ between subgroups: for example, black and Latina women have lower rates of mammography screening than other racial groups.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated data from 47,946 women age 52 to 69 years who had continuous membership for 24 months but had not undergone mammography.

Automated phone and mail population outreach to promote colorectal cancer screening.

Objectives: To evaluate a population outreach program to promote screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) among average-risk insured men and women.

Study Design: In 2008, 58,440 Kaiser Permanente Colorado members unscreened for CRC received an interactive voice response (IVR) call followed by mailed fecal immunochemical test (FIT), or colonoscopy if requested. We used a quasi-experimental design with staged implementation, in which a random subset of eligible members was selected each week to receive the intervention.