NotePage SMS, Texting and Messaging Blogs

Missed appointments are a common problem in the health care industry, and they can result in a significant waste of resources.

As such, many health care providers are trying to develop effective systems to minimize missed appointments.

One of the easiest and most effective ways to remind patients of appointments is to send them text messages.

Here is a look at how doctors in the United States are using text messaging to keep missed appointments to a minimum.

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A 10-month Philadelphia hospital text message and email reminder pilot scheme cut its 30-day readmission rates among chronic heart failure patients by 10%.

The pilot, which involved 368 congestive heart failure patients and a total of 784 discharges, found that patients were not only more likely to arrange and attend their follow-up appointment if prompted by a text message, phone call or email reminder, they were also less likely to be readmitted to hospital.

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Distracted walking is another known danger, with digitally-distracted pedestrians a threat on our sidewalks and intersections—prompting a handful of US communities to now fine people caught in the act of walking and texting.

These technology addicts are not just a public nuisance. Ohio State University researchers found that more than 1,500 Americans ended up in the hospital from accidents related to being distracted while walking—and that was based on emergency room visits through 2010.

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More Rwandans have turned to short text messages to communicate, with the number of SMSs sent last year rising by over six billion for on-net texts compared to the previous year.

According to the telecom sector 2014 report by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority, close to 7.4 billion on-net short messages were sent out last year compared to 961.7 million in 2013. Off-net text messages also increased tremendously to 159.9 million texts, up from just 22.8 million SMSs the previous year.

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Researchers at Saint Luis University are explored the feasibility of helping low-income mothers through postpartum depression using text messages.

For the study, researchers evaluated the feasibility of sending supportive text messages to low-income mothers of racial and ethnic minority backgrounds with postpartum depression and gauge the perception of receiving such message for depression.

Mothers found to be at risk received supportive text messages four times a week for six months, in addition to receiving access to traditional counseling services in an academic pediatric office. By the end of the research period, 4,158 text messages (86.1 percent of those sent) were successfully delivered to 54 mothers.

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Trying to keep that New Years resolution to stay fit? You'll be pleased to learn that technology can help you far more than it may distract you, if you use it right. Whether you want to stick to a fitness regimen, eat healthier, manage your weight, sleep better, or improve your overall wellness, there is, as they say, an app for that.

Smart Phone, Healthy You

Speed plus convenience makes texting the go-to option for on-the-go conversation. In fact, over five billion messages are sent per day! While a text message may be more casual than a phone call or an email, texting whatever, whenever, to whomever has consequences.

Avoid these gaffes when you send messages from your cell phone

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Are you worried about hackers stealing millions of your customer records? According to one security vendor, you should be more worried about your employees spilling corporate secrets via text message, 160 characters at a time.

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Text messaging is now being used for a different purpose than to keep contact with friends and family. It is being used on dairy farms to send farmers information about equipment

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We hve all heard horror stories about the traveler who comes home to a $6,000 phone bill after using their device abroad. While using your phone outside of the country is likely to cost you a little more than usual, you shouldn't be afraid of taking your phone with you on your travels. Before shooting that MMS with the view from your hotel room, though, you should do a little research to make sure you are not in over your head.

How to Travel with Your Phone

For more than a half-century, a small group of astronomers has sought intelligent company among the stars. They have done so by turning large radio antennas skyward, hoping to eavesdrop on signals from an advanced society. It’s a program known as SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

But now some researchers propose that we should do more than simply don headphones and await E.T.’s call: We should make serious efforts to encourage a response from putative aliens by deliberately transmitting our own messages.

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Preschoolers performed better on literacy tests when their parents received text messages with tips on how to help them, a study in San Francisco found.

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Do text message reminders sent to women increase the number of women who will attend a screening?

Just last year, the Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku in Finland published a study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research and found that 77 percent of the studies they reviewed found that text messaging improved health care outcomes such as appointment attendance.

In this double-blind randomized controlled study, a team of researchers funded by the Imperial College Healthcare Charity, had set out to test whether text message reminders were effective in reminding women about their breast cancer screening appointment.

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