Email Campaign to Increase Uptake of myGeisinger

Completed

Interventions: Behavioral: Standard email
Behavioral: Less-is-better
Behavioral: Social proof
Behavioral: Endowment / decision staging

Brief Summary: The purpose of the current study is to test different email messages to determine the most effect way of promoting enrollment in Geisinger's patient portal, called myGeisinger.

Detailed Description: Online patient portals are convenient tools that improve patient access to healthcare services while often reducing burden to both patients and providers. However, fewer than half of patients have enrolled in Geisinger's patient portal, myGeisinger.

The purpose of the current study is to assess what kind of messaging improves the effectiveness of an email campaign targeted at enrolling patients into Geisinger's online patient portal, called myGeisinger. Currently, Geisinger sends an email every month to patients who have started but not completed the enrollment process (they have had an activation code generated but have not yet used that code to enroll). This study will A/B test 5 email messages to assess if they perform better than the current standard email message.

Performance will be assessed based on whether patients open the email, click on the myGeisinger enrollment link, and enroll in myGeisinger. Statistical analyses will employ generalized linear models with a binary distribution and log-link function.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Geisinger patients whose myGeisinger status is "Pending", meaning an activation code has been generated for them, but they have not completed activation

Exclusion Criteria

Patients without email addresses on file
Patients who received emails from this monthly myGeisinger marketing campaign within the last 2 months

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Control	Standard email	A standard marketing message encouraging activation and describing the benefits of myGeisinger
Focused on medical information access	Less-is-better	A simple message focused on one benefit of myGeisinger: accessing medical information, like test results
Social proof	Social proof	A message similar to control, but including information about how many other patients are using myGeisinger
Focused on provider communication	Less-is-better	A simple message focused on one benefit of myGeisinger: communicating easily with providers
Endowment / decision staging	Endowment / decision staging	A message similar to control, but framing myGeisinger as something that patients already have, and just need to take one more step to activate. Endowment: Give patients the impression they already have the account, so they value it more. Decision staging: Break down the process into multiple stages - "having" an account and "activating" that account- and giving the impression that they are almost there because the first stage is complete
Focused on scheduling	Less-is-better	A simple message focused on one benefit of myGeisinger: scheduling and managing appointments online

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Link Clicked: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	8-10 days post-intervention	Whether the link / button to start the activation process was clicked (yes / no)
Email Opened: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	8-10 days post-intervention	Whether email was opened (yes / no)
Enrollment: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	8-10 days post-intervention	Whether the patient enrolled in myGeisinger (yes / no)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Link Clicked: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	32-35 days post-intervention	Whether the link / button to start the activation process was clicked (yes / no)
Enrollment: Within Less-is-better (Provider Communication vs. Managing Appointments vs. Medical Information Access)	32-35 days post-intervention	Whether the patient enrolled in myGeisinger (yes / no)
Enrollment: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	32-35 days post-intervention	Whether the patient enrolled in myGeisinger (yes / no)
Email Opened: Within Less-is-better (Provider Communication vs. Managing Appointments vs. Medical Information Access)	32-35 days post-intervention	Whether email was opened (yes / no)
Email Opened: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	32-35 days post-intervention	Whether email was opened (yes / no)
Link Clicked: Within Less-is-better (Provider Communication vs. Managing Appointments vs. Medical Information Access)	32-35 days post-intervention	Whether the link / button to start the activation process was clicked (yes / no)