SMS-Based Patient Outreach for Appointment Attendance, Medication Adherence, and Screening Uptake: Scoping Review with ☸️SAIMSARA

Name: SAIMSARA Evidence Object digital::SMS_PATIENT_OUTREACH_SS
Creator: SAIMSARA
License: https://saimsara.com/license/

SAIMSARA

doi:10.62487/saimsara3165b1f4

SAIMSARA Journal

Machine-Readable Science • ISSN 3054-3991

SMS-Based Patient Outreach for Appointment Attendance, Medication Adherence, and Screening Uptake: Scoping Review with ☸️SAIMSARA

Digital Health & Biotech

Issue 3, Volume 1, 2026

Chat with this issue

DOI: 10.62487/saimsara3165b1f4

Editorial note

• Last update: 2026-06-10 10:18:08

What is this paper about

SMS outreach can improve appointment attendance, medication adherence, screening uptake, and chronic disease engagement—but its success depends strongly on message design, personalization, and patient context. The full read reveals which strategies work best, where SMS falls short, and how it should be integrated into broader patient-outreach systems.

Human-verified editorial review Verified by World ID proof-of-human. This editorial layer was submitted from a SAIMSARA account verified as a unique human.

Generated with SAIMSARA v5.0

Abstract: To comprehensively map the original research literature on SMS-based patient outreach, synthesizing its applications, effectiveness, and implementation characteristics across clinical domains, populations, and settings. The review uses 43 references and builds its evidence map from 144 original studies with 5742095 total participants/sample observations (topic-deduplicated ΣN). Overall, this scoping review suggests that SMS-based patient outreach is a versatile and broadly effective tool for strengthening healthcare engagement, with the most consistent signals seen in appointment adherence, medication refill behavior, and screening uptake. Interactive, tailored, and multimodal designs were associated with substantial gains in several settings, including a 14.07 percentage point increase in refill rates with tailored messaging and 72.9% colorectal cancer screening adherence when SMS was combined with email. However, effectiveness was moderated by age, digital literacy, and socioeconomic factors, indicating that SMS alone is unlikely to close equity gaps. Practically, these findings support embedding SMS within layered outreach workflows rather than as a standalone channel. Future research should prioritize equity-focused, long-term trials that test personalized and multimodal SMS strategies against standard outreach to clarify durability and reach in underserved populations.
.

Keywords: SMS-based patient outreach; appointment reminders; medication adherence; patient engagement; mHealth interventions; digital health communication; treatment initiation; patient-reported outcomes; healthcare access; chronic disease management

Review Stats

Final search date and database lock: 2026-05-31 16:04:23 CEST
Plan: Pro (expanded craft tokens; source: Semantic Scholar)
Source: Semantic Scholar
Total Abstracts/Papers: 7869
Downloaded Abstracts/Papers: 1000
Included original and non-original Abstracts/Papers (all): 246
Included original Abstracts/Papers (Vote counting by direction of effect): 144
Reference Index (links used in paper): 43
Total participants/sample observations (topic deduplicated ΣN): 5742095

Get access to the full paper

Unlock the full evidence map

Full paper access includes the complete human-readable review, figures, reference index, PDF export, and machine-readable Evidence JSON download.
Evidence JSON can also be purchased separately if you only need the LLM-ready object for agent, AI, or RAG workflows.
Institutional or library access? Sign in with your institution email to open all available SAIMSARA papers under your institution access arrangement.
Need a SAIMSARA review on your own topic? ☸️Request.

Reference Index (43)

[1] Reducing No-Show Rates through Digitalization: AI and SMS-Based Interventions for Better Patient Adherence — https://doi.org/10.1145/3746972.3746993
[2] Evaluating Technology-Driven Strategies for Enhancing Patient Outreach for Preventive Care: A Systematic Review — https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.79467
[3] SMS-based collection of PROMs on hand surgery global outreach trips: a pilot feasibility study — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhsa.2021.05.001
[4] VeriSMS: A Message Verification System for Inclusive Patient Outreach against Phishing Attacks — https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642027
[5] Treatment initiation among tuberculosis patients: the role of short message service (SMS) technology and Ward-based outreach teams (WBOTs) — https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-12736-6
[6] Data-Driven Patient Engagement to Improve Medication Adherence: A Narrative Review of Targeted Outreach Across Health Systems — https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.95928
[7] Interventions in Primary Care to Improve Cervical Cancer Screening: A Systematic Review — https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.99604
[8] EpxMedTracking: Feasibility Evaluation of an SMS-Based Medication Adherence Tracking System in Community Practice — https://doi.org/10.2196/resprot.7223

Unlock the full paper to view the complete Reference Index.