BackgroundThousands of mobile health (mHealth) apps have been developed to support patients’ management of their health, but the effectiveness of many of the apps remains unclear. While mHealth apps appear to hold promise for improving the self-management of chronic conditions across populations, failure to balance the system demands of the app with the needs, interests, or resources of the end users can undermine consumers’ adoption of these technologies.ObjectiveThe original aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a commercial mHealth app in improving clinical outcomes for adult patients in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) with uncontrolled diabetes and/or hypertension. Patients entered clinical data into the app, which also supported messaging between patients and providers. After a 4-month period of vigorous recruitment, the trial was suspended due to low enrollment and inconsistent use of the app by enrolled patients. The project aim was changed to understanding why the trial was unsuccessful.MethodsWe used the user-task-context (eUTC) usability framework to develop a set of interview questions for patients and staff who were involved in the trial. All interviews were done by phone and lasted 20 to 30 minutes. Interviews were not recorded.ResultsThere was a poor fit between the app, end users, and recruitment and treatment approaches in our setting. Usability testing might have revealed this prior to launch but was not an option. There was not sufficient time during routine care for clinical staff to familiarize patients with the app or to check clinical data and messages, which are unreimbursed activities. Some patients did not use the app appropriately. The lack of integration with the electronic health record (EHR) was cited as a problem for both patients and staff who also said the app was just one more thing to attend to.ConclusionsThis brief trial underscores the pitfalls in the utilization of mHealth apps. Effective use of mHealth tools requires a good fit between the app, the users’ electronic health (eHealth) literacy, the treatment approach, staff time, and reimbursement for services. The last 3 are contextual factors of the setting that affected the adoption of the app and context is an important factor in implementation science. We recommend that researchers address contextual factors in the trial and adoption of mHealth technologies.
We derived a useful method that combines readily available elements from an EHR to identify chronic pain with high accuracy. This method should prove useful to those interested in identifying chronic pain patients in large datasets for research, evaluation or quality improvement purposes.
PURPOSE Communication between specialists and primary care clinicians is suboptimal, and access to referrals is often limited, which can lead to lower quality, inefficiency, and errors. An electronic consultation (e-consultation) is an asynchronous, non-face-to-face consultation between a primary care clinician and a specialist using a secure electronic communication platform. The purpose of this study was to conduct a randomized controlled trial of e-consultations to test its efficacy and effectiveness in reducing wait times and improving access to specialty care.METHODS Primary care clinicians were randomized into a control (9 traditional) or an intervention (17 e-consultation) arm for referrals to cardiologists. Primary care clinicians were recruited from 12 practice sites in a community health center in Connecticut with mainly medically underserved patients. Two end points were analyzed with a Cox proportional hazards model where the hazard of either a visit or an e-consultation was linked to study arm, sex, race, and age.RESULTS Thirty-six primary care clinicians participated in the study, referring 590 patients. In total, 69% of e-consultations were resolved without a visit to a cardiologist. After adjusting for covariates, median days to a review for an electronic consultation vs a visit for control patients were 5 and 24, respectively. A review of 6-month follow-up data found fewer cardiac-related emergency department visits for the intervention group.CONCLUSION E-consultation referrals improved access to and timeliness of care for an underserved population, reduced overall specialty utilization, and streamlined specialty referrals without any increase in adverse cardiovascular outcomes. e-consultations are a potential solution for improving access to specialty care.
ObjectivePain is an extremely common complaint in primary care, and patient outcomes are often suboptimal. This project evaluated the impact of Project ECHO Pain videoconference case-based learning sessions on knowledge and quality of pain care in two Federally Qualified Health Centers.DesignQuasi-experimental, pre-post intervention, with comparison group.SettingTwo large, multisite federally qualified health centers in Connecticut and Arizona.SubjectsIntervention (N = 10) and comparison (N = 10) primary care providers.MethodsPrimary care providers attended 48 weekly Project ECHO Pain sessions between January and December 2013, led by a multidisciplinary pain specialty team. Surveys and focus groups assessed providers’ pain-related knowledge and self-efficacy. Electronic health record data were analyzed to evaluate opioid prescribing and specialty referrals.ResultsCompared with control, primary care providers in the intervention had a significantly greater increase in pain-related knowledge and self-efficacy. Providers who attended ECHO were more likely to use formal assessment tools and opioid agreements and refer to behavioral health and physical therapy compared with control providers. Opioid prescribing decreased significantly more among providers in the intervention compared with those in the control group.ConclusionsPain is an extremely common and challenging problem, particularly among vulnerable patients such as those cared for at the more than 1,200 Federally Qualified Health Centers in the United States. In this study, attendance at weekly Project ECHO Pain sessions not only improved knowledge and self-efficacy, but also altered prescribing and referral patterns, suggesting that knowledge acquired during ECHO sessions translated into practice changes.
BackgroundCommunity health centers are increasingly embracing the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model to improve quality, access to care, and patient experience while reducing healthcare costs. Care coordination (CC) is an important element of the PCMH model, but implementation and measurability of CC remains a problem within the outpatient setting. Assessing CC is an integral component of quality monitoring in health care systems. This study developed and validated the Medical Home Care Coordination Survey (MHCCS), to fill the gap in assessing CC in primary care from the perspectives of patients and their primary healthcare teams.MethodsWe conducted a review of relevant literature and existing care coordination instruments identified by bibliographic search and contact with experts. After identifying all care coordination domains that could be assessed by primary healthcare team members and patients, we developed a conceptual model. Potentially appropriate items from existing published CC measures, along with newly developed items, were matched to each domain for inclusion. A modified Delphi approach was used to establish content validity. Primary survey data was collected from 232 patients with care transition and/or complex chronic illness needs from the Community Health Center, Inc. and from 164 staff members from 12 community health centers across the country via mail, phone and online survey. The MHCCS was validated for internal consistency, reliability, discriminant and convergent validity. This study was conducted at the Community Health Center, Inc. from January 15, 2012 to July 15, 2014.ResultsThe 13-item MHCCS - Patient and the 32-item MHCCS - Healthcare Team were developed and validated. Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypothesized domain structure. Four CC domains were confirmed from the patient group and eight were confirmed from the primary healthcare team group. All domains had high reliability (Cronbach’s α scores were above 0.8).ConclusionsPatients experience the ultimate output of care coordination services, but primary healthcare staff members are best primed to perceive many of the structural elements of care coordination. The proactive measurement and monitoring of the core domains from both perspectives provides a richer body of information for the continuous improvement of care coordination services. The MHCCS shows promise as a valid and reliable assessment of these CC efforts.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-015-0893-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Objective:To evaluate the impact of a clinical dashboard for opioid analgesic management on opioid prescribing and adherence to opioid practice guidelines in primary care.Methods:A pre/postimplementation evaluation using electronic health record (EHR) data from patients receiving chronic opioid therapy (COT) between April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2013. Measures include annual proportions of COT patients who received urine drug testing, signed an opioid treatment agreement, had a documented assessment of pain-related functional status, and had at least 1 visit with a behavioral health provider.Results:Adherence to several opioid prescribing guidelines improved in the postimplementation year compared with the preimplementation year: (1) the proportions of COT patients with a signed opioid treatment agreement and urine drug testing increased from 49% to 63% and 66% to 86%, respectively. The proportion of COT patients with a documented assessment of functional status increased from 33% to 46% and those with a behavioral health visit increased from 24% to 28%. However, there was a small decline in the proportion of patients prescribed COT from 3.4% to 3.1%.Discussion:Implementation of an opioid dashboard led to increased adherence to certain opioid practice guidelines and a decline in COT. This may be attributable to more efficient team-based pain management facilitated by the dashboard and increased transparency of opioid prescription practices. Health Information Technology solutions such as clinical dashboards can increase adherence to practice guidelines.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.