This prospective study is the first one of its kind carried out in Finland, in which a simple technological platform was developed to merge traditional text messaging with an electronic patient information database. The technology has been tested for relaying two-way treatment messages in psychiatry provided by a central hospital offering secondary healthcare. Text messaging was found to be particularly well suited for young people who have to travel to the outpatient clinic over long distances or who face the risk of social exclusion. According to clinicians, the text message reminders sent between the visits, which take place every 1-2 months, can encourage the young people in question to stay in touch more frequently, which will help to improve their relationship with the hospital staff. The project is still in the pilot stage, and so far the most important results concern the development of the operating culture and, surprisingly enough, legal aspects. From the legal point of view, the hospital had to equate text messages with phone communications. For this reason, it was not possible to put the text messages into a separate register and they have not been archived either. The success or failure of the new innovative healthcare solution may, therefore, depend on both technological aspects and legal factors.
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