HealthDay News -- A text messaging-based intervention increasesinfluenza vaccination compared with usual care in a low-income, urban population, although overall rates of vaccination remain low, study data indicate.

In a low-income, urban population, weekly text message reminders resulted in a vaccination rate of 43.6% compared with 39.9% in families who received usual care with just the single phone call reminder, Melissa S. Stockwell, MD, MPH, of Columbia University School of Public Health in New York City, and colleagues reported in the April 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Although the difference was statistically significant, by the end of influenza season it was small at a relative 9% and an absolute 3.7%, according to the researchers.

They conducted a randomized-controlled trial involving 9,213 children and adolescents aged 6 months to 18 years during the 2010 to 2011 influenza season. The primary analysis included 7,574 participants who had not received influenza vaccine prior to study initiation.

Parents of children assigned to the intervention received up to five weekly text messages providing educational information and vaccination clinic information in addition to usual-care automated telephone reminders. Study participants were mainly minorities, with 58% from Spanish-speaking families, and 88% were publicly insured.

At the end of the study period, significantly more participants in the intervention versus usual-care group had received an influenza vaccine (43.6% vs. 39.9%; relative rate ratio [RRR], 1.09; P= 0.001). At an earlier review date, prior to influenza activity, significantly more participants in the intervention group compared with the usual-care group had received the influenza vaccine (27.1% vs. 22.8%; RRR, 1.19; P< 0.001).

The researchers acknowledged that the low-income, urban study population likely faced competing priorities and barriers to vaccination that were not addressed by the texting intervention that contributed to keeping rates low.

In an accompanying editorial, Peter G. Szilagyi, MD, MPH, of the University of Rochester, in Rochester, N.Y., and William G. Adams, MD, of Boston University, said that although the findings were modest, the study still represents an important step forward in delivering preventive health-care services.

"At a population level, an increase of even four percentage points is important," they wrote. "If applied across the U.S., it could represent an additional 2.5 million children and adolescents who receive influenza vaccination."

Szilagyi and Adams pointed out a number of advantages to text message reminders, such as providing a more stable platform for reaching individuals compared with home addresses and telephone numbers, which might change, as well as providing the ability to reach the recipient directly.

They called for additional studies to determine the optimal text message strategies to achieve public health goals, as well as efforts to make information more actionable.

"Future studies might examine the incremental benefit of including a telephone number that could be called immediately to schedule an appointment or perhaps one that could scan an online calendar to propose a few available times for vaccination," Szilagyi and Adams suggested.

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A HEALTH trust has been successfully piloting a text messaging service to remind patients of upcoming appointments.

Since July 2011, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which provides specialist health and social care services for people with a learning disabilities, mental health issues, and drug or alcohol problems, has been piloting the SMS text messaging reminder service for outpatient appointments.

Each year, hundreds of service users miss their appointments simply because they forget when it is and each missed appointment costs the Trust £160, on average.

Text reminders have been tested by other NHS organisations around the country and have been proven to substantially reduce the number of missed appointments.

Trust business manager for general adult mental health services, Martin Vokes, said: “Sending out text reminders has proven to be a great way of reducing the number of missed appointments for other NHS organisations.

“Reducing the number of missed appointments can reduce service user waiting times as cancelled appointments can be reallocated to others. By reducing the number of missed appointments, waiting times for appointments can be reduced too, as cancelled appointments can be reallocated to others.”

The service is currently being tested with two areas of service and will be evaluated in March before a trust-wide roll out is agreed.

DEERFIELD, Ill., October 06, 2011 - Text messaging has become the most popular form of communication for mobile users in the U.S., and now Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (NASDAQ: WAG) is helping its pharmacy patients remember and order prescription refills through its newest mobile feature, Refill Reminder Text Alerts. The new service delivers a text message notifying patients when an existing prescription is due for refill, orders can then be completed with a simple “refill” reply.

The service is free to mobile and smartphone users, standard data and messaging rates apply through wireless carriers.

“We’ve driven strong adoption and customer engagement through our mobile applications, and these mobile pharmacy features are also great tools for helping people manage their health,” said Sona Chawla, Walgreens president of e-commerce. “This is another way we’re extending the access to Walgreens pharmacy to patients on the go and helping them stay well.”

Pharmacy patients can sign up for refill reminder text alerts at any Walgreens pharmacy and also online at www.walgreens.com/textalerts.

Walgreens currently has more than 2 million subscribers for its Prescription Ready Text Alerts, which notify customers when a prescription order is ready for pickup.

Mobile Health Care Applications Drive Online Refills, May Help Improve Adherence Rates

The overall cost of poor medication adherence is approximately $290 billion per year to the U.S. health care system.¹ In addition, studies show that for every 100 new prescriptions, only 15-20 percent are refilled as prescribed.²

“Medication non-adherence is one of the biggest hurdles in treating illness today, responsible for more than $100 billion each year in avoidable hospitalizations³,” said Cheryl Pegus, Walgreens chief medical officer. “Tools and personalized services that can help patients remain compliant with their prescription regimens can be effective in lowering health care costs and improving patient care.”

Walgreens mobile applications, which recently received Webby Awards in the people’s voice categories of Best Integrated Mobile Experience and Best Shopping from a Mobile Device, now account for more than 25 percent of the company’s online prescription refills.

These applications feature Refill by Scan, which enables mobile users to order refills simply by scanning the barcode on a prescription bottle. They also have a prescription refills tab, where refills can be ordered by entering a prescription number, with in-store pickup available at any Walgreens store.

Source Walgreen