COVID-19 Vaccine Text Outreach

Pragmatic Trial of COVID Vaccine Text Outreach Interventions

This project aims to evaluate different approaches to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake among at-risk patients at Penn Medicine in an equitable and systematic manner through a centralized outreach program. The investigators will evaluate different text-based scheduling and messaging approaches informed by behavioral science to increase uptake among eligible patients, including the use of clinician endorsement, opt-out framing, and scarcity.

This project will evaluate a centralized approach to increasing COVID through direct outreach to eligible patients via text messaging. This pragmatic randomized controlled trial has the following aims:

Aim 1: To conduct systematic large scale text message outreach for vaccine delivery among a defined group of Penn Medicine in a way that advances equity.

Aim 2: To offer different scheduling workflows through text messaging that might increase uptake and reduce disparities.

Aim 3: To compare the equity and efficiency of different messages informed by behavioral science, including PCP endorsement, opt-out framing, and scarcity.

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients of Penn Medicine aged 18+ who reside in Philadelphia and who have had at least 1 visit in the past 5 years with a Penn Medicine primary care provider (PCP)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who have completed any dose of the vaccine at Penn Medicine, are currently scheduled to receive the vaccine, have externally documented vaccination records, or have previously received text-message based vaccine outreach.