Professor Adams Co-author’s JAMA Editorial

William Adams, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at BUSM and pediatrician at Boston Medical Center, co-authored an editorial in the April 25 edition of JAMA. The editorial, “Text Messaging – A New Tool for Improving Preventive Services,” examined a study published in the same issue of JAMA about a text messaging intervention to improve flu vaccination rates. Below is an excerpt from the editorial:

“Modest steps are the norm when complex behaviors and systems are targeted such as receipt of preventive services. Nonetheless, these systems have substantial potential, particularly when the technologies are tailored to individual patients and families, delivered in an actionable way, and driven toward important health behaviors. There can be little doubt that in the next decade there will be an increasing use of such systems and their application to additional services. As recently as 10 years ago, e-mailing patients was considered novel and text messaging did not exist. Within the next few years, the novel findings presented in this study will also become a routine component of the complex system of health care delivery.”

To view the entire editorial, click here.