Data and Analytics Boost Strategic Text Message Outreach Programs

A physician expert spells out how provider organizations can improve patient engagement - and eliminate care gaps. Because of COVID-19, many primary care physicians have seen declines in well-child visits and vaccinations. The trend has put children at risk for developmental delays, and children and adults at risk for infectious diseases. The declines have significantly impacted operations.

In the summer of 2020, healthcare data and software company Arcadia started offering provider-organization clients analytics to create educational outreach campaigns designed to cut through conflicting information and encourage parents to bring their children and themselves in for well visits and routine vaccinations. The vendor's provider-organization clients found the most successful medium to be text messaging, compared with the more common email approach.

Dr. Rich Parker, chief medical officer at Arcadia, has learned how to overcome data quality issues, how to value analytics for monitoring care gaps, and how to build patient and provider trust when implementing strategic patient outreach and engagement. Healthcare IT News sat down with him to bring some of his expertise to readers.