UCLA Health Patient Health Tickler Email

Conditions

• Health Maintenance

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

18 Years - N/A

Healthy Volunteers

Not accepted

Interventions

• Behaviorally informed tickler email — BEHAVIORAL
  The email notification from patients' PCP office will inform patients that a new review of their records shows they are due for an important medical exam. This intervention harnesses behavioral principles related to importance (medical exam described as important), personalization (records described as belonging to participants), urgency (participants are asked to sign in and make the recommended appointment as soon as possible), timeliness (participants are told that there has been a new review of their records), source effects and accountability (participants are told that a message from their PCP's office is waiting for their response). To make it easier for patients to find and review the MAP letter, the email also contains a link that directs patients to the MAP letter on their patient portal.

Study Details

This is a prospective clinical trial evaluating how a behaviorally-informed outreach email notification impacts patient engagement with primary care. This trial is being implemented in conjunction with UCLA Health's larger quality improvement initiative (the My Action Plan Quality Improvement Initiative) in order to improve primary care preventive measure completion rates. The main question it aims to answer is if sending an enhanced email notification (i.e., enhanced tickler email) to identified UCLA Health primary care patients increases their engagement with primary care. Participants will be assigned to either a control (standard tickler email) or treatment (enhanced tickler email) condition, based on whether their birth date ends in an odd or even number. Researchers will compare control and treatment groups to see if and how they differ in pre-defined outcome measures.

Key Dates

Start date

Nov 8, 2023

Status verified

Jun 2025

Primary completion

May 31, 2025

Completion

Nov 30, 2025

Study Design

Enrollment

81,000 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Arms

• No Intervention: Arm 1: Standard tickler email
  Eligible, assigned participants will receive the current standard email notification (i.e., "control tickler") from UCLA Health, informing patients that they have received a new message in their MyChart patient portal account, and containing links to their portal account.
• Experimental: Arm 2: Enhanced tickler email
  Eligible, assigned participants will receive a behaviorally informed email notification (i.e., "enhanced tickler"), coming from their PCP's office, informing patients that they are due for an important medical exam, and containing a direct link to the MAP Letter on their patient portal account.

Primary Outcome Measure

MAP Letter opened [ Time Frame: From email notification outreach until 9 a.m. the next day before an automatic text reminder is sent to every participant, and 7 days after getting the outreach email notification ]

Locations (1)

Find similar trials in Los Angeles, CA

Related Studies

• Report Cards and Feedback for PCCE
  Recruiting · University of California, Los Angeles · Los Angeles, California
• Lifewise Preventive Video Education in Primary Care
  Not Yet Recruiting · Trinity Health-Livonia · Livonia, Michigan