title: Patient experience with, and use of, an electronic monitoring system to assess vaccination responses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the user experience and acceptability of an electronic patient monitoring system.
  
  
  METHODS
  822 Military and civilian personnel at a health clinic at a major US military headquarters used an Internet and telephone-based electronic monitoring system to report vaccination-site responses and symptoms after receiving the smallpox vaccination. Focus groups of vaccinees were conducted to help develop a survey about the experience that was distributed to 379 vaccinees (96% completion rate).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Users of the electronic monitoring system reported that it was fast and easy to use and reported they would use a system like this again and recommend an electronic monitoring system to a friend or relative. Most users (84%) were comfortable with a physician tracking their vaccine reaction using their electronic reports, but only half (51%) were comfortable with eliminating the post-vaccination follow-up visit with their health-care provider based on their electronic reports.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This electronic monitoring system was well received by vaccinees and allowed health-care providers to track the status of vaccinees. However, vaccinees were not comfortable replacing a physician visit with electronic monitoring, at least for the smallpox vaccination. A monitoring system like this may be useful in public health settings, such as mass vaccination or prophylaxis during a bioterrorism event, a pandemic influenza outbreak, or another public health emergency.
authors: Associate Natural Scientist, RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. olmsted@rand.org
authors: Stuart S
authors: SS
authors: Olmsted
authors: John D
authors: JD
authors: Grabenstein
authors: Arvind K
authors: AK
authors: Jain
authors: Nicole
authors: N
authors: Lurie