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Mobile app Improves Quality of Care, Health Outcomes in IBD
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ORLANDO – Quality of care and health outcomes improved among patients with irritable bowel disease who used HealthPROMISE, a mobile application that increases patient engagement, self-management skills and communication transparency, compared to patients who did not use the app, according to research presented at Advances in IBD 2017.
Led by Ashish Atreja, MD, MPH, from the division of gastroenterology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the researchers sought to examine the efficiency of a digital intervention (HealthPROMISE) in an IBD patient population when used along with clinical methods for long-term IBD management. HealthPROMISE, developed by Mount Sinai and linked to a cloud-based decision support dashboard, is designed to improve health outcomes and enhance quality of care (QOC).
They enrolled 320 patients with IBD in the study, randomly assigning 162 patients to intervention group and 158 to control group. Using patient-completed intake questionnaires on health literacy, disease severity, general health status and demographic information, researchers examined QOC data, decrease in IBD-related emergency visits and hospitalizations, change in quality of life (QOL) score from baseline and proportion of patients reporting controlled disease status per group.
Among patients using HealthPROMISE, IBD-related QOL scores from baseline improved continuously over a follow-up of 575 days (25.2 ± 11.3 versus 30.3 ± 11.3 baseline; P < .001). QOC improved among all patients after an average follow-up of 495 days (78% intervention vs. 59% control), but there was a more significant increase from baseline observed among those in the HealthPROMISE group (+28 ppt versus +9 ppt; P < .01). QOC continued to improve after a second follow-up of 575±135 days (84% vs. 65%), with a more significant improvement from baseline in intervention users (+34 ppt vs. +15 ppt; P < .01).
In conclusion, IBD patients who used HealthPROMISE showed significant improvement in QOC. These patients reported more equitable participation in their care decision-making process and showed improved health outcomes compared to patients in the control group. These findings suggest that digital health interventions and IBD remote monitoring can help close gaps in QOC, and improve patient engagement and health outcomes. – by Savannah Demko
Reference:
Atreja A, et al. P-003. Presented at: Advances in IBD; Nov. 9-11, 2017; Orlando, Fla.
Disclosure: Atreja reports no relevant financial disclosures.