Improving Vaccine Acceptance Through EHR Integrated Patient- and Provider-Facing Decision Support

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Status: Begins enrollment this month

Conditions: Vaccine Refusal; Vaccine Hesitancy

Treatments: Other: LetsTalkShots (patient-facing CDS); Other: Appointment Reminder Message; Other: LetsTalkShots (provider-facing CDS)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06482450

IRB00024984

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this project is to establish the technical feasibility of a scalable, integrated platform to improve patient informed decision-making and increase vaccine uptake and to evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated platform to improve vaccine uptake.

Full description

The first study objective is to establish the technical feasibility of a scalable, integrated platform to improve patient informed decision-making and increase vaccine uptake. The investigators have established a partnership between vaccine safety and hesitancy experts at the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins and clinical informatics and implementation experts at Emory University and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA). This team will design a technology architecture to accomplish the following goals: (1) provide patients/parents with tailored vaccine messaging videos through the LetsTalkShots (LTS) platform; (2) leverage the same LTS logic that determines which videos are shown in LTS and push associated talking points into the EHR; (3) display patient-specific talking points at the right time in clinical workflows to promote an evidence-based vaccine conversation; (4) centralize maintenance of this messaging with the LTS application; (5) minimize resources required from each healthcare institution to go live with the integrated platform; and (6) establish revenue-generating mechanisms for LTS (e.g. licensing fees) and each healthcare institution (e.g. billing for vaccine counseling).

The second study objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated platform to improve vaccine uptake. First, providers at the CHOA Hughes Spalding Primary Care clinic will have two opportunities to participate in a 1 hour Continuing Medical Education (CME) session on evidence-based vaccine communication. For intervention visits, parents of undervaccinated patients with upcoming appointments will receive a text message appointment reminder with a link to an EHR-integrated questionnaire on vaccine intent and concerns. This questionnaire will drive the patient/parent to view tailored LTS videos, while pushing the associated talking points back to the clinician at the time of the appointment. For control visits, parents will receive appointment reminders per usual care. Primary outcome: Administration of recommended vaccines at the index appointment. Mixed effects multivariable logistic regression will evaluate the influence of the integrated platform on the primary outcome, adjusted for demographics.

The study hypothesis is that among visits with integrated decision support, vaccination rates will be 10% higher (absolute) than control visits with no such decision support.

Enrollment: 1,200 estimated patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Patient has an upcoming appointment in 2 business days at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Hughes Spalding Primary Care Clinic.
• A valid mobile phone number or e-mail address is available in the EHR as of 2 business days prior to the appointment date.

Phase 1: COVID-19 Vaccine only:

• Due for a COVID-19 vaccine based on Epic Systems© COVID-19 vaccine health maintenance topic.

Phase 2: All Vaccines:

• Due for any vaccines based on Epic Systems© implementation using health maintenance topics of the Centers for Disease Control CDS for Immunization (CDSi) specifications.

Exclusion criteria

• None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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1,200 participants in 4 patient groups, including a placebo group

Patient- and Provider-Facing CDS

Experimental group

Description:

Parents of patients with odd birthdates (e.g. April 13) and vaccines due at the index appointment who also have a MYchart account will receive a text message directing the parent to the LTS server with integration into the provider workflow

Treatment:

Other: Appointment Reminder Message

Other: LetsTalkShots (provider-facing CDS)

Other: LetsTalkShots (patient-facing CDS)

Patient-Facing CDS Only

Experimental group

Description:

Among patients without a MYchart account, those with odd birthdates will receive a link to the LTS website (patient-facing CDS) but no integration into the provider workflow.

Treatment:

Other: Appointment Reminder Message

Other: LetsTalkShots (patient-facing CDS)

Control (MYchart account)

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Patients with an even birthdate (e.g. April 14) who have a MYchart account will receive a regular text message and e-mail appointment reminder with a vaccine primer (e.g. "Vaccines are due and reserved for the participant's child"), but no patient- or provider-facing CDS.

Treatment:

Other: Appointment Reminder Message

Control (no MYchart account)

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

As in the other control group, those without a MYchart account and an even birthdate (e.g. April 14) will receive a text message and e-mail appointment reminder with a vaccine primer but no patient- or provider-facing CDS.

Treatment:

Other: Appointment Reminder Message