Background: Mobile health (mHealth) technology has the potential to support the Chronic Care Model's vision of closed feedback loops and patient-clinician partnerships.
Objective: This study aims to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and short-term impact of an electronic health record-linked mHealth platform (Orchestra) supporting patient and clinician collaboration through real-time, bidirectional data sharing.
Methods: We conducted a 6-month prospective, pre-post, proof-of-concept study of Orchestra among patients and parents in the Cincinnati Children's Hospital inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and cystic fibrosis (CF) clinics. Participants and clinicians used Orchestra during and between visits to complete and view patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures and previsit plans. Surveys completed at baseline and at 3- and 6-month follow-up visits plus data from the platform were used to assess outcomes including PRO completion rates, weekly platform use, disease self-efficacy, and impact on care. Analyses included descriptive statistics; pre-post comparisons; Pearson correlations; and, if applicable, effect sizes.
Results: We enrolled 92 participants (CF: n=52 and IBD: n=40), and 73% (67/92) completed the study. Average PRO completion was 61%, and average weekly platform use was 80%. Participants reported improvement in self-efficacy from baseline to 6 months (7.90 to 8.44; P=.006). At 6 months, most participants reported that the platform was useful (36/40, 90%) and had a positive impact on their care, including improved visit quality (33/40, 83%), visit collaboration (35/40, 88%), and visit preparation (31/40, 78%). PRO completion was positively associated with multiple indicators of care impact at 3 and 6 months.
Conclusions: Use of an mHealth tool to support closed feedback loops through real-time data sharing and patient-clinician collaboration is feasible and shows indications of acceptability and promise as a strategy for improving pediatric chronic illness management.
Keywords: chronic illness; eHealth; health services research; mHealth; mobile phone; patient engagement.
©Lisa Opipari-Arrigan, Dana M H Dykes, Shehzad A Saeed, Sunny Thakkar, Lisa Burns, Barbara A Chini, Gary L McPhail, Ian Eslick, Peter A Margolis, Heather C Kaplan. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 26.11.2020.