We read with interest the paper by Narring et al demonstrating that text message reminders failed to reduce non-attendance at a hospital youth clinic.1

Reducing clinic no-shows is becoming a major focus of research because of the potential for waste reduction.2 A systematic review recently compared the use of text message reminders, automated recordings, live phone calls and mail in 29 interventional studies.2 The authors concluded that automated reminders such as text messages were less effective than live phone calls.2

We recently conducted a retrospective analysis of patient attendance at our …