A Best Practice Alert for Identifying Hepatitis B-Infected Patients.

We developed and evaluated the Global Health Wizard Hepatitis B Best Practice Alert (BPA) to increase primary care provider adherence to evidence-based guidelines for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection screening in non-U.S.-born patients. We conducted a pilot study using nine clinics to test BPA effectiveness. Eligible patients were aged ≥ 12 years, from a country of origin with ≥ 2% HBV prevalence, had no electronic health record documentation of HBV screening, and were seen for primary care during July 2012-March 2013. The BPA triggered for > 4,500 patients and identified six previously unrecognized HBV-infected patients. The pilot project demonstrated BPA effectiveness and continued to be used at pilot clinics until 2018 and was expanded to additional clinics in 2019; 29 additional HBV-infected patients were identified. Although successful, BPA usage steadily decreased over time. Poor BPA usage limits the power to achieve the goal of improved population-based HBV screening.