AT AAP 2017
An electronic pop-up placed on clinicians’ electronic medical record may have had a positive impact on the human papillomavirus vaccination rates in a Texas pediatric clinic, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
To prompt greater use of the HPV vaccine, investigators at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) in El Paso added a reminder to the electronic medical record system aimed at clinicians working at the center’s pediatric clinic. Patients included in the intervention were children and adolescents between ages 9 and 18. Records were reviewed between January 2013 and December 2015. A random chart audit was conducted in the clinic. The research team then compared vaccination rates before and after their intervention to gauge its effectiveness.
HPV vaccination rates grew from 34% before the installation of the reminder to 53% afterwards. “We’ve had a lot of success in increasing the rates,” said lead researcher Kimberly Ferris, a fourth-year medical student at Texas Tech’s Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.
Ms. Ferris said that the medical center is located near Mexico, and the patient population includes children and adolescents from Juarez. “We still have a lot of young women who are dying from cervical cancer. Really honing in on this population will have a long term effect. …Pediatrics is really where it starts. This is where you want to capture them.”
The plan is to keep the pop-up reminder in place and continue its use to educate staff and families, said co-author Maria Theresa Villanos, MD, director of ambulatory pediatrics at Texas Tech. Part of the success of their project is “there is no missed opportunity. This pop-up reminder appears during well child visits as well as any time a child comes in sick or for acute care,” she said.
“The major barrier that needs to be addressed is probably pop-up fatigue,” Ms. Ferris said. Because the prompt is new, people are still reading it each time it comes up, but that behavior could wane over time, she said. “It would be interesting to look at long-term vaccination rates and whether the numbers stay the same or if there is a decline.”
Ms. Ferris and Dr. Villanos had no relevant financial disclosures.
