To improve patient compliance with medication regimens and decrease adverse drug events, a group from Harvard sent automated electronic messages via an internet portal to ambulatory patients who had received a new or modified prescription. The message would ask the patient if he/she had filled the prescription, and if there were any questions or concerns. These concerns would be routed back to the primary care practitioner. A randomized, controlled clinical trial was performed, with 375 patients receiving these messages, compared to 363 that did not. Half of the patients responded to the messages, and 1/3 had trouble filling their prescriptions; however, there was no significant differences between the control and intervention groups in rate of adverse drug events.