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According to the Nudge theory, if you are told that your peers are better than you, you can improve your game.
Looks like it works with doctors too.
One study suggests that an additional 2,500 cancers could be detected earlier each year if general practitioners with a low baseline rate receive a letter informing them that their colleagues are recommending more patients.
According to the experts, this way of giving doctors the incentive to do better and to recommend more patients to the tests could save lives.
Cancer survival is limited in the UK compared to other western countries because we are not fast enough to diagnose the disease.
However, if there is a healthy rivalry between doctors, it could encourage them to increase the number of patients they recommend for cancer tests.
A study by the Behavioral Insights government team, which tested the theory by sending letters to general practitioners in Manchester, revealed that cancer referrals could be multiplied by five.
The team focused on 244 surgeries with a benchmark rate record for below average cancer tests.
The letters informed the practices that their referrals were below average and that other nearby clinics were sending more patients for testing.
As a result of this boost, those who sent the fewest patients increased referrals by up to 20%, compared to practices that were not sent by letter.
So it seems that among physicians, peer pressure works. Reference rates increased by an average of 10% among practices with the smallest number of patients sent for testing.
"Simply brutalizing people or just giving information, it does not change behavior, [but] Social norms are a very powerful factor, "says Felicity Algate of the Behavioral Insights team.
Health leaders are therefore considering rolling out the policy of sending letters to the NHS.
Last year, an official report – produced by former National Cancer Director Sir Mike Richards – stated that general practitioners sending too few patients for cancer tests were one of the explanations of the late diagnosis rates of cancer in the United Kingdom.
However, the Royal College of General Practitioners, which represents the NHS and private doctors in the UK, has warned of undue pressure on doctors to send people to the hospital.
"When some cancers are at an early stage, they have symptoms similar to those of much more common diseases that must first be excluded," said Helen Stokes-Lampard, President of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
OK, but before referral to cancer, why can not we do some basic diagnostic tests in the community to rule out other common diseases?
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Main reports of Mirror Online
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