MyPennMedicine

Penn Medicine's electronic patient facing portal, "MyChart by myPennMedicine (MPM)" can be used for consenting and recruitment of research participants when appropriate.

Recruitment messaging using MPM

Patients receive a notification in their personal emails, or a text through the number in their PennChart record- that they have a message for a research study prompting them to log into their MPM account. 

Please note the following before submitting a request to use this recruitment functionality in PennChart via MyPennMedicine:

• The study needs to be built in PennChart for this function to be used (RSH record creation). Follow instructions on the PennChart Billing page to request study creation.
  • Request billing exemption if research team is not billing.
• IRB approval is needed before use. Team should submit language that mentions use of messaging using MyPennMedicine and email intended for patients.
• Research team must use OCR's template opt-out language in the message that the patient will view in their portal, as part of the IRB submission.
  • Steps mentioned above may be put in process simultaneously- IRB submission, MPM request review, research study build in PennChart.
• Patients must be marked as "identified" to the research study. This is the only allowable enrollment status to send MPM messages.
• Updating patient statuses for contacted patients is critical and required for tracking opt outs from your research study in PennChart eg: “declined” , “consented”.
• Having an active MPM account makes receiving these messages easier for patients, however the function may send a text message or email, depending upon preference setting,  to patients without an active MPM account.
  • Messages will not be sent to patients that have opted out from overall research recruitment contact by Penn Medicine.
• Research Coordinators listed in the PennChart study can send these messages to patients after approval, email build and training.
• The bulk messaging limit per day is 400. 
• Different studies (RBN#s) required separate MPM messaging build in PennChart.

Steps to follow for recruitment message build

1. Submit ticket Penn Medicine IS Self Service Portal helpdesk ticket
   • Add to ticket- recruitment message language ie email for patient, and intake form. See next step. 
   • Use word document links- MPM Recruitment Request Form, Email template Recruitment thru MPM. Office of Clinical Research will review these.
2. PennChart Research IS will schedule training with IS for demo and training.
3. After email is built in Pennchart and research team is trained, users can refer to tipsheet as refresher to send messages, update statuses, track outreach.

Electronic Consent (eConsent)

• This method is recommended for studies involving Penn Medicine patients with active MPM accounts.  
• Consent form can be built into MPM and sent to patient 
• Direct messaging back and forth with the patient using MPM
• Tool can provide consent and then engage in survey or other activities within MPM, like questionnaires.
• Tool is HIPAA compliant, communications live within the patient's medical record.
• This method is not advisable if your study or patient requires their Legally Authorized Representative (LAR) to consent. 
• There is no cost associated 
• Research study must be built in PennChart before using this method to consent.

Also see Resources and Tipsheets on MyPennMedicine in the PennChart section of this website.

Contact the PennChart Research team if you are interested in using, or getting a demo of these functions. Email PennChartResearch@uphs.upenn.edu