Email Campaign to Increase Uptake of myGeisinger

Email Campaign to Encourage Patients to Complete Sign-up Process for Geisinger's Patient Portal

The purpose of the current study is to test different email messages to determine the most effect way of promoting enrollment in Geisinger's patient portal, called myGeisinger.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Health Behavior; Telehealth
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Standard email; Behavioral: Less-is-better; Behavioral: Social proof; Behavioral: Endowment / decision staging

Detailed Description

Online patient portals are convenient tools that improve patient access to healthcare services while often reducing burden to both patients and providers. However, fewer than half of patients have enrolled in Geisinger's patient portal, myGeisinger.

The purpose of the current study is to assess what kind of messaging improves the effectiveness of an email campaign targeted at enrolling patients into Geisinger's online patient portal, called myGeisinger. Currently, Geisinger sends an email every month to patients who have started but not completed the enrollment process (they have had an activation code generated but have not yet used that code to enroll). This study will A/B test 5 email messages to assess if they perform better than the current standard email message.

Performance will be assessed based on whether patients open the email, click on the myGeisinger enrollment link, and enroll in myGeisinger. Statistical analyses will employ generalized linear models with a binary distribution and log-link function.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 14099

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Danville, Pennsylvania, United States, 17822
      • Geisinger

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 88 years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

The population consists of Geisinger patients whose myGeisinger status is "Pending" and who have an email address on file.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Geisinger patients whose myGeisinger status is "Pending", meaning an activation code has been generated for them, but they have not completed activation

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients without email addresses on file
• Patients who received emails from this monthly myGeisinger marketing campaign within the last 2 months

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

6

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Control; A standard marketing message encouraging activation and describing the benefits of myGeisinger	Behavioral: Standard email; Email
Focused on provider communication; A simple message focused on one benefit of myGeisinger: communicating easily with providers	Behavioral: Less-is-better; Email
Focused on scheduling; A simple message focused on one benefit of myGeisinger: scheduling and managing appointments online	Behavioral: Less-is-better; Email
Focused on medical information access; A simple message focused on one benefit of myGeisinger: accessing medical information, like test results	Behavioral: Less-is-better; Email
Social proof; A message similar to control, but including information about how many other patients are using myGeisinger	Behavioral: Social proof; Email
Endowment / decision staging; A message similar to control, but framing myGeisinger as something that patients already have, and just need to take one more step to activate. Endowment: Give patients the impression they already have the account, so they value it more. Decision staging: Break down the process into multiple stages - "having" an account and "activating" that account- and giving the impression that they are almost there because the first stage is complete	Behavioral: Endowment / decision staging; Email

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Email Opened: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	Whether email was opened (yes / no)	8-10 days post-intervention
Link Clicked: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	Whether the link / button to start the activation process was clicked (yes / no)	8-10 days post-intervention
Enrollment: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	Whether the patient enrolled in myGeisinger (yes / no)	8-10 days post-intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Email Opened: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	Whether email was opened (yes / no)	32-35 days post-intervention
Link Clicked: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	Whether the link / button to start the activation process was clicked (yes / no)	32-35 days post-intervention
Enrollment: Control vs. Less-is-better vs. Social Proof vs. Endowment	Whether the patient enrolled in myGeisinger (yes / no)	32-35 days post-intervention
Email Opened: Within Less-is-better (Provider Communication vs. Managing Appointments vs. Medical Information Access)	Whether email was opened (yes / no)	8-10 days post-intervention
Link Clicked: Within Less-is-better (Provider Communication vs. Managing Appointments vs. Medical Information Access)	Whether the link / button to start the activation process was clicked (yes / no)	8-10 days post-intervention
Enrollment: Within Less-is-better (Provider Communication vs. Managing Appointments vs. Medical Information Access)	Whether the patient enrolled in myGeisinger (yes / no)	8-10 days post-intervention
Email Opened: Within Less-is-better (Provider Communication vs. Managing Appointments vs. Medical Information Access)	Whether email was opened (yes / no)	32-35 days post-intervention
Link Clicked: Within Less-is-better (Provider Communication vs. Managing Appointments vs. Medical Information Access)	Whether the link / button to start the activation process was clicked (yes / no)	32-35 days post-intervention
Enrollment: Within Less-is-better (Provider Communication vs. Managing Appointments vs. Medical Information Access)	Whether the patient enrolled in myGeisinger (yes / no)	32-35 days post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Geisinger Clinic

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): April 6, 2020
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): April 13, 2020
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): May 8, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 31, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 1, 2020
• First Posted (ACTUAL): April 2, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): May 3, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 30, 2021
• Last Verified: April 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Patient Portal; Behavioral Economics; Social Proof; Endowment Effect; Less-is-better
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2020-0315

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Data with no personally identifiable information will be made available to other researchers on the Open Science Framework for transparency. This will include the essential data and code needed to replicate the analysis that yielded reported findings.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: The data will become available after publication of study results in a scientific journal and will be available as long as the Open Science Framework hosts the data.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: The data on the Open Science Framework will be open to anyone requesting that information.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No