Patient Portal Reminder/Recall for Influenza Vaccination in a Health System- RCT 3

This trial is taking place in Los Angeles, CA among patients from primary care practices within the UCLA Health System, using 2x2x2 factorial design, nested in a parallel 2-arm trial.

Sub-optimal vaccination rates are a significant problem in the U.S., despite their effectiveness in preventing morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable illness. For influenza specifically, annual epidemics of influenza cause substantial morbidity in the U.S. with up to 40,00-80,000 deaths/year and many hospitalizations, emergency and outpatient visits, and significant costs.

Reminder/recall (R/R) messages, sent by phone, mail or other modality, can improve child and adult influenza vaccination rates. However, the majority of pediatric or adult primary care practices to not conduct R/R. Barriers are lack of finances, personnel, and algorithms to identify eligible patients.

A technological breakthrough that might overcome these barriers involves patient portals-- secure, web-based communication systems, embedded within electronic health records (EHRs), for patients and providers to communicate with each other via email and the internet. Portals are used by about half of Americans and half of UCLA patients.

This randomized controlled trial will assess the effectiveness of reminders messages, encouraging influenza vaccination, sent to patient portal users on increasing influenza vaccination rates within a health system by randomizing patients to two groups: 1) two-thirds of patients will receive reminder letters, 2) one-third will not receive reminders.