Randomized controlled trial of health maintenance reminders provided directly to patients through an electronic PHR

BACKGROUND

Provider and patient reminders can be effective in increasing rates of preventive screenings and vaccinations. However, the effect of patient-directed electronic reminders is understudied.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether providing reminders directly to patients via an electronic Personal Health Record (PHR) improved adherence to care recommendations.

DESIGN

We conducted a cluster randomized trial without blinding from 2005 to 2007 at 11 primary care practices in the Partners HealthCare system.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 21,533 patients with access to a PHR were invited to the study, and 3,979 (18.5%) consented to enroll.

INTERVENTIONS

Patients in the intervention arm received health maintenance (HM) reminders via a secure PHR “eJournal,” which allowed them to review and update HM and family history information. Patients in the active control arm received access to an eJournal that allowed them to input and review information related to medications, allergies and diabetes management.

MAIN MEASURES

The primary outcome measure was adherence to guideline-based care recommendations.

KEY RESULTS

Intention-to-treat analysis showed that patients in the intervention arm were significantly more likely to receive mammography (48.6% vs 29.5%, p?=?0.006) and influenza vaccinations (22.0% vs 14.0%, p?=?0.018). No significant improvement was observed in rates of other screenings. Although Pap smear completion rates were higher in the intervention arm (41.0% vs 10.4%, p?CONCLUSIONSProviding patients with HM reminders via a PHR may be effective in improving some elements of preventive care.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11606-011-1859-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.KEY WORDS: health maintenance reminders, personal health record, preventive care, clinical decision support, Patient Gateway