Colorado public health officials wanted to see if they could collect information about Giardia cases more quickly. Giardia is an intestinal infection that causes diarrhea. They tried sending text message invitations with links to an online survey to people in Colorado who had laboratory-confirmed Giardia infections between September 2023 and May 2024.
The report states that this combined text-and-online method helped officials rapidly capture complete case data for about one third of the patients contacted. Complete case data helps health departments understand how people got sick and if cases are connected.
It is important to know this information comes from a public health report, not a formal research study. The report does not compare this text message method to other ways of gathering information, like phone calls. It also does not provide statistical analysis or suggest how well this would work in other states or for other diseases. For now, it shows one state's experience trying a new tool for a specific job during a specific time.