TEXT TO DETECT: Heart Health Check Recall Program in Australian general practice

Research Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the impact of general practice-initiated SMS recall messages (with and without an additional nudge message) on increasing attendance at GP clinics and increasing CVD risk assessment. Research setting: The trial will be initiated via text mediated message sent by participating general practices across the country. Practices in one arm will be asked to send a second nudge message 2 weeks after the recall message is sent. CVD risk assessment and management will be undertaken within the practice and as part of the individual's routine medical care Methodological approach: The trial design will be a multiple-armed randomised control trial (RCT). The level of analysis will be general practice clinics. Practices will be randomised into two intervention arms and 1 control arm. The intervention arms are as follows: 1. Active arm 1 (recall only message) will be provided with an information package (constituting a recall SMS with an embedded link to cardiovascular health promotion resources) to be sent to patients who are eligible for cardiovascular disease screening. 2. Active arm 2 (recall + nudge message) will be provided with an information package (constituting a recall SMS and an additional nudge SMS message, both with embedded link to cardiovascular health promotional resources to send to patients who are eligible for cardiovascular disease screening. There will be a two-week period between the sending of the recall and nudge message. The first recall SMS will be triggered manually via the GoShare Plus software followed by an automated nudge message 2 weeks later. A 12 week observation period applies for both intervention arms, with a follow up three-month data report extracted at completion of observation period. Recall text messages will be sent in bulk via GoShare Plus software (add on to clinical practice software) by relevant staff within the participating general practice e.g. GP, practice nurse or practice manager. Both the recall and nudge message content will be between 200 - 230 characters long and broken into two sentences. We anticipate the reader will engage with the message for no longer than 1 minute. If the reader chooses to select the embedded link for more information, we anticipate the reader could spend between 3 to 5 minutes depending on the reader’s interest. The landing page content will include summary of information already available via the National Heart Foundation website, and includes: • Summary information adapted from ‘Time to book a Heart Health Check’ webpage. • Pre-existing animation, available on the ‘Time to book a Heart Health Check’ webpage’ • Two pre-exisiting patient stories, that has been used via National Heart Foundation consumer social media channels, campaigns and consumer facing e-newsletter. Both patient stories are selected from the ‘Heart Stories’ webpage • Summary description and link to the consumer developed ‘Heart Age Calculator’ Recall and nudge message reach and content engagement with the content will be reported using a live dashboard developed by Healthily who have developed the GoShare Plus technology. The Dashboard will report on the number of SMS sent, the open rate per practice, the open rate of SMS landing page links per practice and the number of content views.