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Systematic Review
To evaluate the effects of reminders automatically generated through a computerized system (computer‐generated) and delivered on paper to healthcare professionals on quality of care (outcomes related to healthcare professionals' practice) and patient outcomes (outcomes related to patients' health condition).
"Only seven studies in this review met the inclusion criteria of this evidence map:
'The median improvement in quality of care associated with reminders differed according to the targeted behavior but not the number of targeted behaviors. The largest improvement seen was in vaccination, with a median improvement of 13.1% (IQR 12.2% to 20.7%).'
In regards to the wider review, the authors state:
We identified 35 studies (30 randomized trials and five non‐randomized trials) and analyzed 34 studies (40 comparisons). Twenty‐nine studies took place in the USA and six studies took place in Canada, France, Israel, and Kenya. All studies except two took place in outpatient care. Reminders were aimed at enhancing compliance with preventive guidelines (e.g. cancer screening tests, vaccination) in half the studies and at enhancing compliance with disease management guidelines for acute or chronic conditions (e.g. annual follow‐ups, laboratory tests, medication adjustment, counseling) in the other half.
Computer‐generated reminders delivered on paper to healthcare professionals, alone or in addition to co‐intervention(s), probably improves quality of care slightly compared with usual care or the co‐intervention(s) without the reminder component (median improvement 6.8% (IQR: 3.8% to 17.5%); 34 studies (40 comparisons); moderate‐certainty evidence).
Computer‐generated reminders delivered on paper to healthcare professionals alone (single‐component intervention) probably improves quality of care compared with usual care (median improvement 11.0% (IQR 5.4% to 20.0%); 27 studies (27 comparisons); moderate‐certainty evidence). Adding computer‐generated reminders delivered on paper to healthcare professionals to one or more co‐interventions (multi‐component intervention) probably improves quality of care slightly compared with the co‐intervention(s) without the reminder component (median improvement 4.0% (IQR 3.0% to 6.0%); 11 studies (13 comparisons); moderate‐certainty evidence).
We are uncertain whether reminders, alone or in addition to co‐intervention(s), improve patient outcomes as the certainty of the evidence is very low (n = 6 studies (seven comparisons))."
"There is moderate‐certainty evidence that computer‐generated reminders delivered on paper to healthcare professionals probably slightly improves quality of care, in terms of compliance with preventive guidelines and compliance with disease management guidelines. It is uncertain whether reminders improve patient outcomes because the certainty of the evidence is very low. The heterogeneity of the reminder interventions included in this review also suggests that reminders can probably improve quality of care in various settings under various conditions."