HCPLive: Flu Shot Reservation Text Messaging May Improve Vaccination Rates

Influenza vaccination uptake may be improved by health systems sending strategically-phrased text message reminders to patients, according to findings from a Philadelphia-based trial. The findings—which come in the same week as other research from Philadelphia showing Black patients’ buy-in to text-message telemedicine for blood pressuring monitoring, as well as findings from Finland showing improved flu vaccination rates in regions receiving reminder mail—are just the latest supporting individualized public health message strategies for regular vaccination. Led by Alison Buttenheim, PhD, MBA, of the Department of Family and Community Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, investigators sought to interpret the effect of text messages informing patients that a seasonal flu vaccine had been “reserved” for them at their health system on the actual flu vaccination rate for that season. Read more in HCP Live.