Timely Nudge About Lab Results to Increase myGeisinger Uptake

Nudging myGeisinger Enrollment Using Timely Email Messaging Reminding Patients of Lab Results Available

The purpose of the current study is to test whether sending email communications in a timely manner - when patients have laboratory results available to view on the myGeisinger patient portal - increases enrollment in the portal.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Health Behavior; Telehealth
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Timely; Behavioral: Foot-in-the-door; Behavioral: Transparency

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, many patients have not enrolled in such portals, including Geisinger's patient portal, known as myGeisinger.

The purpose of the current study is to test whether sending myGeisinger enrollment information in a timely manner - when the benefits of enrolling are most readily available - increases enrollment. Specifically, messages will be timely in terms of lab test results having just been made available online, with the added benefit that patients can view their results prior to receiving them via mail. Unenrolled patients who recently had a laboratory procedure ordered and whose results are now ready for sharing will be informed via email that their lab results are available. At the same time, these patients will be reminded that these results can be viewed online through myGeisinger.

The primary outcome measure of interest, myGeisinger enrollment rates, will be compared between the emailed population and a control group that similarly has lab results available but will not be contacted. In addition, two different versions of the email communication will be tested. One will highlight that the patient will have to go through a sign-up process before viewing test results (in the service of transparency). The other will provide a presumed direct link to view those results, via a button that potentially serves as a pre-commitment step to undergo the registration process ("foot in the door" effect). Secondary analyses will assess differences in enrollment rates as well as unsubscribe rates between the email versions. Exploratory analyses will further examine differences in the rates at which patients opened and clicked on enrollment links within the two emails. Statistical analyses will employ generalized linear models with a binary distribution and log-link function.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 5012
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

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

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Geisinger patient for whom a lab was ordered within 30 days prior to email date
• Patient's lab test result released day before email date

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patient already enrolled in myGeisinger
• Patient has already declined myGeisinger

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; Patients do not receive an email
Experimental: Timely nudge - view results; Patients are emailed about myGeisinger when they have a lab result ready to view. The email includes a "View My Lab Results" button, which encourages them to click as a pre-commitment step that then brings them to the myGeisinger sign-up page.	Behavioral: Timely; Email; Behavioral: Foot-in-the-door; Email
Experimental: Timely nudge - get started; Patients are emailed about myGeisinger when they have a lab result ready to view. The email includes a "Get Started With myGeisinger" button that is transparent about the next step in the process, before the patient can view test results.	Behavioral: Timely; Email; Behavioral: Transparency; Email

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Enrollment - Timely Email (Combined Email Arms) vs. no Intervention	Patient enrolled in myGeisinger (yes / no)	1 week post-intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Enrollment - Email Including a "Get Started" Button vs. a "View Results" Button	Patient enrolled in myGeisinger (yes / no)	1 week post-intervention
Email Opened - Email Including a "Get Started" Button vs. a "View Results" Button	Email was opened (yes / no)	1 week post-intervention
Link Clicked - Email Including a "Get Started" Button vs. a "View Results" Button	Link / button to start the enrollment process was clicked (yes / no)	1 week post-intervention
Unsubscribed - Email Including a "Get Started" Button vs. a "View Results" Button	Patient unsubscribed from these email communications (yes / no)	1 month post-intervention
Enrollment - Timely Email (Combined Email Arms) vs. no Intervention	Patient enrolled in myGeisinger (yes / no)	1 month post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Geisinger Clinic

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 18, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 8, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): July 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 1, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 1, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): April 3, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 11, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 18, 2021
• Last Verified: May 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Patient Portal; Behavioral Economics
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2020-0316

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