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Many proven and well-accepted preventive health measures are underused. Numerous systems have been proposed over the years to increase appropriate use of preventive care, but most meet with less than robust success. Dexter and associates conducted a randomized, controlled trial to determine the effects of computerized reminders on the rates at which preventive therapies are sought.
Over an 18-month period, the authors studied the use of a computerized reminder system in a general medicine service at an urban teaching hospital. They aimed to increase the use of four preventive health items (pneumococcal vaccination, influenza vaccination, prophylactic heparin for deep venous thrombosis prevention, and prophylactic aspirin). The study authors randomly assigned resident physicians and medical students to an intervention or a control group and followed...