Targeted Electronic Patient Portal Messaging Increases Hepatitis C Virus Screening in Primary Care: a Randomized Study

Importance Electronic health record (EHR) tools such as direct-to-patient messaging and automated lab orders are effective at improving uptake of preventive health measures. It is unknown if patient engagement in primary care impacts efficacy of such messaging. Objective To determine whether more en...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of general internal medicine : JGIM 2022-10, Vol.37 (13), p.3318-3324
Main Authors: Halket, Douglas, Dang, Jimmy, Phadke, Anuradha, Jayasekera, Channa, Kim, W. Ray, Kwo, Paul, Downing, Lance, Goel, Aparna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antibodies
Automation
Completeness
Electronic health records
Electronic medical records
Health care
Hepatitis
Hepatitis C
Internal Medicine
Intervention
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Messages
Original Research
Patients
Primary care
Viruses
Web portals
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Importance Electronic health record (EHR) tools such as direct-to-patient messaging and automated lab orders are effective at improving uptake of preventive health measures. It is unknown if patient engagement in primary care impacts efficacy of such messaging. Objective To determine whether more engaged patients, defined as those who have an upcoming visit scheduled, are more likely to respond to a direct-to-patient message with an automated lab order for hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening. Design Randomized trial Participants One thousand six hundred randomly selected Stanford Primary Care patients, 800 with an upcoming visit within 6 months and 800 without, born between 1945 and 1965 who were due for HCV screening. Each group was randomly divided into cohorts of 400 subjects each. Subjects were followed for 1 year. Intervention One 400 subject cohort in each group received a direct-to-patient message through the EHR portal with HCV antibody lab order. Main Outcome and Measure The EHR was queried on a monthly basis for 6 months after the intervention to monitor which subjects completed HCV screening. For any subjects screened positive for HCV, follow-up through the cascade of HCV care was monitored, and if needed, scheduled by the study team. Key Results Of 1600 subjects, 538 (34%) completed HCV screening. In the stratum without an upcoming appointment, 18% in the control group completed screening compared to 26% in intervention group ( p
ISSN:0884-8734
1525-1497
DOI:10.1007/s11606-022-07460-1