The Colonoscopy Categorisation Guidelines were developed to assist Victorian health services in ensuring that colonoscopy patients are prioritised in a similar way irrespective of the specialist or health service to which they are referred. They outline the optimal categories for prioritising colonoscopy patients in Victoria and provide key information required from referring clinicians.
Research published in the Internal Medicine Journal, found the Victorian guidelines were associated with the highest detection rate (91.4 per cent of cancers would be diagnosed on the Category 1, urgent, colonoscopy list).
Unlike the Victorian guidelines which considered a family history of bowel cancer, the NHMRC endorsed guidelines had a more limited focus of indications (symptomatic presentations). As a result, they did not perform as well.
