Improving COVID-19 Vaccine Outreach Using Technology and Data

Richard Parker, MD, chief medical officer, Arcadia, discusses trends in COVID-19 vaccination rates, explains how Arcadia has been using technology to support patient outreach, and makes recommendations for other health care organizations struggling to vaccinate a larger proportion of patients.

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Welcome back to PopHealth Perspectives, a conversation with the Population Health Learning Network where we combine expert commentary and exclusive insight into key issues in population health management and more.

Today, we are joined by Dr Richard Parker, chief medical officer at Arcadia. He discusses trends in COVID-19 vaccination rates, explains how Arcadia has been using technology to support patient outreach, and makes recommendations for other health care organizations struggling to vaccinate a larger proportion of patients. Dr Parker?

I am Rich Parker, MD. I am the chief medical officer for Arcadia, which is a health care data and analytics company. My background is that of an internist. I worked at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for 30 years as a practicing internist, and as well as their chief medical officer.

Now, as chief medical officer for Arcadia, I deal with anything clinical in our algorithms, and I work with our customers around the country, helping them use the tools optimally. I do see patients still on weekends in our local hospice.

Since the vaccine for COVID-19 has become more available, how have you seen rates of those receiving the vaccine change?

When the vaccine first became available, there was tremendous demand in all states. Some states more than others, but initially, in all states, the demand for vaccine exceeded the supply, and the really eager people got out there, and by hook or by crook, got their vaccines.

As the vaccine supplies increased and the weeks went by, the eager people got vaccinated, and we started getting into the plus-minus people in terms of their desire to get vaccine. Now, we've flipped the supply-demand equation with vaccine, where pretty much anyone who wants a vaccine can get it. We're now vaccinating our teenagers.

The big variations are by state. For example, New England has the highest rates of vaccination uptake. We're now up around 70%. There are states in the South that are substantially lower than that, so there's a lot variation around the country.

For example, in Massachusetts, at the beginning, we were averaging 100,000 vaccinations a day, and now, we're down to about 25,000.

How has Arcadia worked to provide a platform for COVID-19 vaccination education and engagement to health care organizations?

All health care organizations have had a major challenge in identifying all of the eligible patients for COVID vaccine, finding out who has had a vaccine, who has not had a vaccine, and then figuring out a strategy to do the outreach.

Our customers around the country use the Arcadia tools essentially as a gaps-in-care tool to identify who still needs a vaccine. Mostly using text outreach, because most people will look at their cell phones and will read a text. That has been the most effective way to reach people.

I think by now, we've sent well over three million texts out. We can send out a URL embedded in the text message to bring people to a website that the customer wants to share good education about COVID, or we can share actual directions to a phone number to call for an appointment. That's been the most effective way of identifying gaps in care and then doing the outreach via text.

How will platforms like Arcadia's help improve future vaccine rates? What do health care organizations that are struggling to vaccinate a larger proportion of patients need to know?

Vaccine rates can only be determined with good data about who has been vaccinated and who is still missing the vaccine. There's a tremendous data necessity there for any organization to successfully run a vaccine program. That's foundational.

Once a health care provider or a health care organization understands where the gaps in care are, then they can take the next step and figure out their outreach program, which ultimately may even include door-to-door nurses with vaccines, really finding the last holdouts for people who are, for whatever reasons, uncomfortable coming into a health care setting or uncomfortable even getting a vaccine at their local school or church or whatever institution's been available.

They would welcome that door-to-door. Again, that requires good data for health care organizations to find those people. That ultimately is what's going to lead to the highest possible vaccine rates.

How do you foresee the future of care changing after the last year becoming heavily virtual? Do you think a lot of patient education will be driven through these various platforms, and what does this mean for outcomes?

I think one of the indelible takeaways from this past year will include a much more prominent role for telehealth. A lot of people, both patients and health care providers, realized that, yes, they could do this, and we got through a lot of the red tape about HIPAA and anxiety about confidentiality, which, of course, is important.

We found ways to get through that, and I think that's here to stay. Telehealth is also going to be very helpful for rural patients who may have a very long drive to a health care provider, people who are homebound, people who have anxiety or reasons that they might not feel comfortable dealing with a crowded parking garage.

Also, I would say that in the field of psychiatry, telehealth is definitely here to stay, because the psychiatrists can really interact with somebody without needing to physically be in the same room with them.

Is there anything else you'd like to add to the conversation?

I would just add that I think this past year has taught us that we can do a lot of health care remotely, not only via telehealth, but through other modes of communication between patients and their providers.

This should obviate the need for a lot of in-person visits that really should make health care easier for patients, less expensive to the system, and really a big step forward. I think that has been an advance.

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