Uptake and usage of IntelliCare: A publicly available suite of mental health and well-being apps

Abstract

BackgroundTreatments for depression and anxiety have several behavioral and psychological targets and rely on varied strategies. Digital mental health treatments often employ feature-rich approaches addressing several targets and strategies. These treatments, often optimized for desktop computer use, are at odds with the ways people use smartphone applications. Smartphone use tends to focus on singular functions with easy navigation to desired tools. The IntelliCare suite of apps was developed to address the discrepancy between need for diverse behavioral strategies and constraints imposed by typical app use. Each app focuses on one strategy for a limited subset of clinical aims all pertinent to depression and anxiety. This study presents the uptake and usage of apps from the IntelliCare suite following an open deployment on a large app marketplace.MethodsThirteen lightweight apps, including 12 interactive apps and one Hub app that coordinates use across those interactive apps, were developed and made free to download on the Google Play store. De-identified app usage data from the first year of IntelliCare suite deployment were analyzed for this study.ResultsIn the first year of public availability, 5210 individuals downloaded one or more of the IntelliCare apps, for a total of 10,131 downloads. Nearly a third of these individuals (31.8%) downloaded more than one of these apps. The modal number of launches for each of the apps was 1, however the mean number of app launches per app ranged from 3.10 to 16.98, reflecting considerable variability in the use of each app.ConclusionsThe use rate of the IntelliCare suite of apps is higher than public deployments of other comparable digital resources. Our findings suggest that people will use multiple apps and provides support for the concept of app suites as a useful strategy for providing diverse behavioral strategies.

Exploring the Use of Multiple Mental Health Apps Within a Platform: Secondary Analysis of the IntelliCare Field Trial (Preprint)

“…goal setting, behavioral activation, social support, etc.) and improve symptoms of depression and anxiety through efficacious treatment strategies [17]. The user's experience with the clinical apps was coordinated through a Hub app that, among other functions, made weekly recommendations for new apps.…”

“…IntelliCare addresses this by creating a suite of apps, each of which addresses a single psychological or behavioral strategy, rather than attempting to address the full theoretical framework for a mental health problem [17]. Thus, each app is elemental, allowing the user to select which strategies are the most useful to them, consistent with the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) report recommending that app-based treatments combine therapeutic elements as well as consider how people tend to use apps.…”

“…To address this, IntelliCare includes a Hub app, which if downloaded, can help organize the users' experience by making recommendations about which apps to select. Users who download this Hub app use more apps and use the apps for longer periods of time [17]. Receiving a recommendation from the Hub app to use a specific app increases the likelihood that the app will be downloaded and used [19].…”

Use of Mental Health Apps by Breast Cancer Patients and Their Caregivers in the United States: Protocol for a Pilot Pre-Post Study (Preprint)

“…Those from the general public who download the apps are free to use the apps as desired [10]. In the current study, participants are instructed to systematically try 1-2 apps per week and retain the ones that are most helpful to them.…”

Discovery of and Interest in Health Apps Among Those With Mental Health Needs: Survey and Focus Group Study (Preprint)

“…Two examples of publicly available apps with published information on their use are PTSD Coach [5][6][7] and IntelliCare [8]. In an evaluation of the uptake of PTSD Coach in the wild over 3 years, it was downloaded 153,834 times with 61.1% of people using the app within a day of installation, but only 41.6% using it after a month and 19.4% using it after 6 months [9].…”