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Do reminder emails and past due notifications improve patient completion and institutional data submission for patient-reported outcome measures?

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Abstract

Purpose

NRG Oncology, part of the National Cancer Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network, took efforts to increase patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) completion and institutional data submission rates within clinical trials. Lack of completion diminishes power to draw conclusions and can be a waste of resources. It is hypothesized that trials with automatic email reminders and past due notifications will have PROM forms submitted more timely with higher patient completion.

Methods

Automatic emails sent to the research associate were added to selected NRG Oncology trials. Comparisons between trials with and without automatic emails were analyzed using Chi-square tests with respect to patient completion and timeliness of form submission rates. Multivariable analyses were conducted using repeated measures generalized estimating equations. If PROMs were not completed, a form providing the reason why was submitted and counted towards form submission.

Results

For both disease sites, form submission was significantly higher within 1 month of the form’s due date for the studies with automatic emails vs. those without (prostate: 79.7% vs. 75.7%, p < 0.001; breast: 59.2% vs. 31.3%, p < 0.001). No significant differences in patient completion were observed between the breast trials. The prostate trial with automatic emails had significantly higher patient completion but this result was not confirmed in the multivariable analysis.

Conclusions

Although patient completion rates were higher on trials with automatic emails, there may be confounding factors requiring future study. The automatic emails appeared to have increased the timeliness of form submission, thus supporting their continued use on NRG Oncology trials.

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Funding

This project was support by grants U10CA180868 (NRG Oncology Operations), U10CA180822 (NRG Oncology SDMC), UG1CA189867 (NCORP) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and CURE from the state of Pennsylvania. The Department specifically disclaims responsiblity for any analyses, interpretations, or conclusions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NRG Oncology Statistics and Data Management Center, American College of Radiology, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Stephanie L. Pugh, Joseph P. Rodgers, Jennifer Moughan & Roseann Bonanni

  2. NRG Oncology Operations Center, American College of Radiology, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Jaskaran Boparai

  3. University of Kansas, Kansas City, KS, USA

    Ronald C. Chen

  4. NRG Oncology Statistics and Data Management Center, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    James J. Dignam

  5. Emory University Hospital/Winship Cancer Institute, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Deborah W. Bruner

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  1. Stephanie L. Pugh
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Correspondence to Stephanie L. Pugh.

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Pugh, S.L., Rodgers, J.P., Moughan, J. et al. Do reminder emails and past due notifications improve patient completion and institutional data submission for patient-reported outcome measures?. Qual Life Res 30, 81–89 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-020-02613-3

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