Behavioral Economics to Improve Flu Vaccination Using EHR Nudges (BE IMMUNE)

University of Pennsylvania

Status: Completed

Conditions: Flu Vaccination; Flu; Behavior, Health

Treatments: Behavioral: Pre-visit patient text messaging; Behavioral: Default pended order; Behavioral: High risk bidirectional pre-visit text messaging; Behavioral: Monthly peer comparison feedback

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06057727

R33AG068945 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

851838

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will be a multisite, cluster randomized, pragmatic trial to evaluate the effectiveness of personalized nudges to clinicians and patients, relative to a control, to increase flu vaccination rates among older adults in accordance with CDC guidelines. This will include clinician and patient level nudge interventions, with an additional, intensified nudge intervention for patients identified as high risk for not receiving a flu vaccine. Among the intervention clinics, patients will receive pre-visit text message reminders about the flu vaccine, and clinicians will receive a default pended order in the visit encounter in the EHR, along with monthly peer comparison feedback about their flu vaccine completion rate. Patients identified as high risk for noncompletion will be individually randomized to receive an additional bidirectional text message nudge or the standard text messaging.

Full description

Many older adults are at risk of illness, hospitalization, and death from vaccine-preventable diseases. More than half of older adults in the United States are not vaccinated for flu which has remained relatively constant over the past decade, and there are racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in care. In this study, we will evaluate personalized nudges to clinicians and patients to help increase flu vaccination rates during primary care visits among older adults, with a particular focus on population subgroups at high risk for vaccine noncompletion. In a partnership between Penn Medicine and University of Washington (UW) Medicine, this will be a 6-month, multisite, cluster randomized, pragmatic trial with an additional intensification arm for high-risk patients.

Enrollment: 80,039 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 50+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Patient Inclusion Criteria:

All patients must meet the following criteria to be eligible:

1. Age >50 years
2. A scheduled new or return (non-urgent/sick) primary care appointment at one of the study practices at the Penn Medicine, UW Medicine, or Lancaster General Hospital
3. Have not received their annual flu vaccine during the active intervention period (September- February)
4. Eligible to receive the flu vaccine

For the high risk intensification nudge, at least one of the following criteria must be met to be considered high risk and randomized to receive the intensification nudge:

1. Age ≥ 70 years
2. Living in a lower income community (lowest quartile, zip-code based)
3. Did not receive a flu vaccine in the previous calendar year
4. Self-identifies as Non-Hispanic Black

Patient Exclusion Criteria:

1. Have a documented allergy to flu vaccine
2. Have a flu vaccine exclusion modifier in Health Maintenance
3. Have opted out of research according to individual site guidelines and policies
4. Have no phone number (home or mobile) listed in their chart

Clinician Inclusion Criteria:

Clinicians must meet the following criteria to be eligible to receive peer comparison feedback:

1. Practicing physician (MD, DO) or advanced practice provider (NP, PA) with the exception of residents and fellows
2. Have a minimum patient panel of at least 50 patients, and
3. Practicing at a clinical site randomized to receive the clinic-level nudge interventions.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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80,039 participants in 3 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Clinics randomized to the control arm will receive standard of care.

Intervention Arm

Experimental group

Description:

Clinics randomized to the intervention arm will receive the toolkit of clinician and patient facing nudges. Patient nudges will be pre-visit text message reminders (standard messaging content). Clinician nudges will be monthly peer comparison feedback and default pended orders.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Monthly peer comparison feedback

Behavioral: Default pended order

Behavioral: Pre-visit patient text messaging

High Risk Intensification Arm

Experimental group

Description:

Patients in the intervention clinics identified as high risk for noncompletion of the flu vaccine will be randomized 1:1 to receive the high risk intensification arm or remain in the standard intervention arm. Patients in the high risk intensification arm will receive an additional bidirectional texting component.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Monthly peer comparison feedback

Behavioral: High risk bidirectional pre-visit text messaging

Behavioral: Default pended order

Behavioral: Pre-visit patient text messaging