4B. Product Safety Text Message Pilot

The MedWatch Mobile Pilot began March 11, 2010 and was completed October 14, 2010.  The purpose of the project was to determine the acceptability by healthcare professionals, patients, and other members of the public of using text messaging to receive MedWatch Safety Alerts.  The content of the text messages consisted of alerts that provided timely new safety information on human drugs, medical devices, vaccines and other biologics, dietary supplements, and cosmetics. The alerts contained actionable information that may have impacted both treatment and diagnostic choices for healthcare professionals and patients.

The pilot was evaluated by presenting text messaging subscribers with a series of questions to determine the effectiveness and usefulness of the messages as well as users’ satisfaction and message delivery preference.

Over 1,900 individuals subscribed during the pilot; however, there were few respondents to the evaluation questions.  Although a large majority of respondents were satisfied with the pilot, additional studies are needed to evaluate if text messaging would be widely preferred among the target audiences.