Work

Video text messaging is needed to deliver patient education about preventive care in the United States

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: The penetration of smart phones and apps has revolutionized modern life, from education to scientific data collection to interpersonal communication.One area of contemporary life where smart phone use has failed to live up to its revolutionary potential, however, is in health-information messaging.Despite the very high penetration of smart phones-97% of people in the United States now own a cell phone of some type-most health care systems are not taking full advantage of cell phones to deliver health messages.[1] Those that do rely primarily on texting or calling (a practice that was further spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic), and not on linked video messaging.[2][3][4] While text messaging can reach far more people than in-person educational sessions or live phone calls, for a fraction of the cost, text messaging alone has limitations.The conversion rate for getting people to complete a screening test, for example, is higher with a live call than with texting alone.[3,5] This lower conversion rate is one of many reasons to expand the use of health text messaging to include a video component.Video messaging can help overcome language and health-literacy barriers, is more engaging, and can demonstrate how to do a task that might be difficult to explain solely using words.Messaging directly to patients' cell phones shifts away from relying on clinic-specific patient portals that are unequally used across population subgroups.[6] This inequity of access to health care and to patient portals is one of the reasons that the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) is driving efforts to use app-based health information portals rather than relying solely on EMR-or web-based health portals.The rule CMS released in October 2022 stated specifically that a major aim of the new set of data standards is to create "processes . ..to help ensure that patients remain at the center of their own care."[7] Cell-phone based apps that use video could help health systems meet this goal.One example to look to is a program taking place at AltaMed Health Services Corporation, which is a large urban federally qualified health center that operates clinics in Los Angeles and Orange Counties in California.The program sends short (<1 min) animated videos for both English-and Spanish-speakers about the importance of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening and instructs patients on how to complete a fecal immunochemical test (FIT).The videos address common errors in FIT completion (e.g., too much/too little sample collected, collection date omitted; videos available on the project website.[8]) The videos address health messages about routine screening for average-risk adults and can be sent without privacy concerns.Clinic staff

Source: PLOS Digital Health

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000258