Pediatric Practices' Perceptions of Text Message Communication with Families: An American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS) Study.

Background

Text messages can be an effective and low-cost mechanism for patient reminders; however, they are yet to be consistently integrated into pediatric primary care.

Objective

The aim of this study was to explore pediatric primary care clinician and staff perceptions of pediatric office text message communication with families.

Methods

As part of the National Institutes of Health-funded Flu2Text randomized controlled trial of second-dose influenza vaccine text message reminders, we conducted 7 focus groups and 4 individual interviews in July-August 2019 with primary care pediatric clinicians and staff (

Results

Overall, participants were supportive of text reminders for the second-dose influenza vaccine, other vaccines, and appointments and perceived texting as a preferred method of communication for caregivers. Health information privacy and patient confidentiality were the main concerns cited. Only respondents from practices with no internal appointment text message reminder system prior to the study expressed concerns about technology implementation logistics, time, and cost.

Conclusion

Text message reminders, for various uses, appear to be well accepted among a group of geographically widespread pediatric practices after participation in a trial of influenza vaccine text message reminders. Privacy, confidentiality, and resource barriers need to be addressed to facilitate successful implementation.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Conflict of Interest A.F. reported receiving an independent research grant from Pfizer for work unrelated to this project and unrelated to vaccination. No other disclosures were reported.