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When a physician recommends an important health service, patients are more apt to listen, aren’t they? Maybe not. A randomized clinical trial of more than 22,233 patients published in JAMA Network Open tested whether personalized physician videos or infographics could raise the uptake of influenza vaccinations for adults and children. As it turned out, in the 2023-2024 respiratory virus season, vaccination rates were similar across groups: 46.9% with usual care, 48.0% with video, and 47.5% with infographic—differences that were not statistically significant. Optimal timing of flu vaccination—by December 31, 2023—was significantly higher in the video (3,357 of 7,410 [45.3%]; P = .007) and infographic (3,288 of 7,406 [44.4%]; P = .04) group than in the control group (3,212 of 7,417 [43.3%]). However, vaccination rates among children showed some gains when the personalized messages were used. In the video group, 58.4% of kids received a vaccine, and in the infographic group, 55.1% were vaccinated—compared with 54.5% in usual care. But what do the physicians say? A total of 21 physicians agreed to record flu vaccination videos for their patients. They were instructed to create a video of less than 60 seconds, containing fewer than 225 words, featuring a “caring and upbeat tone,” while looking directly into the camera. They were given a basic script for adult and pediatric videos to work from, based on literature, along with suggested themes. Physicians received $50 to record their videos. After the videos went out to patients in secure portal messages, 14 physicians received patient feedback. Of them, 4 indicated that the feedback was very positive, 8 that it was somewhat positive, and 2 said that it was neither negative nor positive. None of the physicians received negative patient feedback. Even a small study like this suggests that there may be opportunity to use video messages to improve vaccination rates.

Videos By Your Kid’s Physician May Encourage Pediatric Flu Vaccination
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