Automated Electronic Health Registry-Based Hepatitis B Screening.

Electronic population health tools may offer novel ways to screen for chronic hepatitis B (CHB), but efficacy of these approaches is currently unknown. We utilized an electronic population health module within Epic Systems to create registries of patients who were at risk for CHB, but never completed a hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) test. For the pilot, hepatitis B testing was bulk ordered to compare an intervention and control clinic prior to dissemination of CHB screening throughout our health system. The intervention clinic increased screening by 556% (95% CI 363%-851%) versus an increase of 190% (95% CI 146%-248%) in the control clinic (p<.0001) after 1 year. Health system-wide, we expanded the screening program to 11 Northern California clinics across 3 counties, involving 4,545 at-risk patients and increased HBsAg completion by 824% (95% CI 724%-939%) compared to baseline. Automated, registry-based methods significantly increased completion of CHB screening.