Surgery News: Texting Teen Patient Improves Outcomes and Compliance With Treatment

Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City has found a new way to get through to teen patients--text messaging. A group of 41 teenaged liver transplant recipients have been trying out a new program to help teens better manage their health by taking their medication in a timely fashion.

In this case, the transplant recipients receive a text message reminding them to take their anti-rejection medications. If they don't respond to the text message, their adult caregiver will then receive a text message. Since taking anti-rejection medications at the same time every day is important for preventing rejection, and "I forgot" is the most common reason for missing medication, the new program is designed to provide a reminder to teen patients in a way that is user friendly.

Doctors are measuring the results in two ways. A blood test is done that helps determine compliance with medication, which helps shed light on how regularly medication is taken. Second, rates of rejection episodes are counted. In this case, rejection episodes dropped from 12 in one year to 2 for patients in the program.

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