Abstract
The context of a national health service affects how the science underpinning screening is applied. Decisions taken about the introduction of screening need to be tempered by the availability of resources, and both the introduction and the withdrawal of screening can have political ramifications. This chapter, based largely on experience in the UK, describes how operating a service paid from public funds influences decision making about a screening service and its operations. Operating screening in this context allows a population approach to be taken which can have many advantages in terms of the ability to quality assure a programme, to use the programme to develop knowledge about screening and the disease screened for, to have an equitable approach to screening across all groups in society and to operate a highly efficient and cost-effective service. However, it does require some central direction to achieve all this, and it does make it difficult to tailor screening to an individual’s preferences.
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Patnick, J. (2013). Applying Cancer Screening in the Context of a National Health Service. In: Miller, A. (eds) Epidemiologic Studies in Cancer Prevention and Screening. Statistics for Biology and Health, vol 79. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5586-8_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5586-8_19
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