Su1473 – Technology Utilization in Patients with Cirrhosis and Preferred Features of Digital Health Management Tools

Abstract This study aims to examine the association between the use of digital health management tools and subjective well-being in later life. Research is limited about technology use (e.g., participation in online wellness program, finding medical information, using devices to monitor health) among community dwelling older adults. This study used data from the Health and Retirement study 2012 Module “Technology Use: Barriers and Benefits” (N = 1,416). We used multiple regression methods to test the association between technology use and subjective well-being (i.e., self-rated health, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms). Over half of the participants reported using technology (58%). The mean age for this group was 68.7 (SD 9.6). Majority of the respondents were female (55%). About 18% were non-Hispanic Blacks, 2% were non-Hispanic other, 11% were Hispanic, and 68% were non-Hispanic Whites. For this sample of technology users, the usage of digital health management included online exercise programs (16%), online wellness programs or health monitoring programs (7%), searching for medical and health information online (43%), digital devices to monitor health (31%), and physical activity-based video game such as Wii Fit (7%). Over 88% of the sample have used at least one of these formats to monitor their health. Results from regression models suggested that the use of any digital health management tools was related to fewer depressive symptoms and better self-reported health. Findings from this study provide insight into how digital health management can protect older adults from poor subjective well-being in later life.

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The Baby Buddy app: views of first-time mothers understanding and use of a pregnancy and parenting mobile application. (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.32757 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Elizabeth Bailey ◽

Samantha Nightingale ◽

Nicky Thomas ◽

Dawn Coleby ◽

Toity Deave ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care Professionals ◽

Health Management ◽

Digital Health ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Management Tools ◽

Cyclical Pattern ◽

First Time Mothers ◽

The Rich ◽

Rich Data ◽

First Time

BACKGROUND Internationally, there is an increasing emphasis on early intervention in the first 1000 days to support pregnant mothers and optimise the health and development of newborns. To increase intervention reach, digital and app-based interventions have been advocated. This paper reports on the qualitative arm of the independent multicomponent evaluation of the Baby Buddy app, a pregnancy related app supported by several professional bodies and developed by a UK young child health and wellbeing charity Best Beginnings. OBJECTIVE To understand when, why and how first-time mothers use the Baby Buddy app and the perceived potential benefits. METHODS An Appreciative Inquiry (AI) qualitative approach was used with semi-structured interviews (n = 17) undertaken with pregnant mother either by telephone or in a focus group. Thematic analysis was used to synthesise the rich data and present findings. RESULTS Four over-riding themes were collated with regard to women’s use of the Baby Buddy app and its influence on interactions with health care professionals and family: Accessibility of information, Knowledge, Reassurance and Reliability, and Confidence. CONCLUSIONS The findings demonstrated a cyclical pattern between the emergent themes, which could provide a framework on which to support first-time mothers’ engagement with digital health management tools. CLINICALTRIAL NA INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-10.1017/S1463423618000294

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An Overview of Digital Health in the Transition of Pediatric to Adult Epilepsy Care

Journal of Pediatric Epilepsy ◽

10.1055/s-0040-1716825 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 09 (04) ◽

pp. 106-113

Author(s):

Ysabeau Bernard-Willis ◽

Emily De Oliveira ◽

Shaheen E Lakhan

Keyword(s):

Health Management ◽

Digital Health ◽

Health Care Systems ◽

Well Being ◽

Pediatric Care ◽

Medical Mistrust ◽

Patient Portals ◽

Language Therapy ◽

Adult Care ◽

Care Systems

AbstractChildren with epilepsy often have impairments in cognitive and behavioral functioning which may hinder socio-occupational well-being as they reach adulthood. Adolescents with epilepsy have the added worry of health problems while starting the transition from family-centered pediatric care into largely autonomous adult care. If this transition is not appropriately planned and resourced, it may result in medical mistrust, nonadherence, and worsening biopsychosocial health as an adult. In recent years, there has been increased availability of digital health solutions that may be used during this stark change in care and treating teams. The digital health landscape includes a wide variety of technologies meant to address challenges faced by patients, caregivers, medical professionals, and health care systems. These technologies include mobile health products and wearable devices (e.g., seizure monitors and trackers, smartphone passive data collection), digital therapeutics (e.g., cognitive/behavioral health management; digital speech–language therapy), telehealth services (e.g., teleneurology visits), and health information technology (e.g., electronic medical records with patient portals). Such digital health solutions may empower patients in their journey toward optimal brain health during the vulnerable period of pediatric to adult care transition. Further research is needed to validate and measure their impact on clinical outcomes, health economics, and quality of life.

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The role of collaborative, multistakeholder partnerships in reshaping the health management of patients with noncommunicable diseases during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research ◽

10.1007/s40520-021-01922-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alessandro Monaco ◽

Amaia Casteig Blanco ◽

Mark Cobain ◽

Elisio Costa ◽

Nick Guldemond ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Management ◽

Digital Health ◽

Patient Empowerment ◽

Advisory Board ◽

Noncommunicable Diseases ◽

Informal Carer ◽

Economic Support ◽

Health And Social Care ◽

Care Models ◽

Multistakeholder Partnerships

Abstract Background Policies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted the screening, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of noncommunicable (NCD) patients while affecting NCD prevention and risk factor control. Aims To discuss how the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic affected the health management of NCD patients, identify which aspects should be carried forward into future NCD management, and propose collaborative efforts among public–private institutions to effectively shape NCD care models. Methods The NCD Partnership, a collaboration between Upjohn and the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, held a virtual Advisory Board in July 2020 with multiple stakeholders; healthcare professionals (HCPs), policymakers, researchers, patient and informal carer advocacy groups, patient empowerment organizations, and industry experts. Results The Advisory Board identified barriers to NCD care during the COVID-19 pandemic in four areas: lack of NCD management guidelines; disruption to integrated care and shift from hospital-based NCD care to more community and primary level care; infodemics and a lack of reliable health information for patients and HCPs on how to manage NCDs; lack of availability, training, standardization, and regulation of digital health tools. Conclusions Multistakeholder partnerships can promote swift changes to NCD prevention and patient care. Intra- and inter-communication between all stakeholders should be facilitated involving all players in the development of clinical guidelines and digital health tools, health and social care restructuring, and patient support in the short-, medium- and long-term future. A comprehensive response to NCDs should be delivered to improve patient outcomes by providing strategic, scientific, and economic support.

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Promoting Problem Solving About Health Management: A Mixed-Methods Pilot Evaluation of a Digital Health Intervention for Older Adults With Pre-Frailty and Frailty

Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine ◽

10.1177/2333721420985684 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. 233372142098568

Author(s):

Annie T. Chen ◽

Frances Chu ◽

Andrew K. Teng ◽

Soojeong Han ◽

Shih-Yin Lin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Mixed Methods ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Problem Solving ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Health Management ◽

Digital Health ◽

Post Intervention ◽

Problem Solving Skills ◽

Health Related

Background: There is a need for interventions to promote health management of older adults with pre-frailty and frailty. Technology poses promising solutions, but questions exist about effective delivery. Objectives: We present the results of a mixed-methods pilot evaluation of Virtual Online Communities for Older Adults (VOCALE), an 8-week intervention conducted in the northwestern United States, in which participants shared health-related experiences and applied problem solving skills in a Facebook group. Methods: We performed a mixed-methods process evaluation, integrating quantitative and qualitative data, to characterize the intervention and its effects. We focus on four areas: health-related measures (health literacy and self-efficacy), participation, problem solving skills enacted, and subjective feedback. Results: Eight older adults with pre-frailty and frailty (age = 82.7 ± 6.6 years) completed the study. There was an upward trend in health literacy and health self-efficacy post-intervention. Participants posted at least two times per week. Content analysis of 210 posts showed participants were able to apply the problem solving skills taught, and exit interviews showed participants’ increased awareness of the need to manage health, and enjoyment in learning about others. Conclusion: This mixed-methods evaluation provides insight into feasibility and design considerations for online interventions to promote health management among vulnerable older adults.

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How Contextual Constraints Shape Midcareer High School Teachers' Stress Management and Use of Digital Support Tools: Qualitative Study

JMIR Mental Health ◽

10.2196/15416 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. e15416

Author(s):

Julia B Manning ◽

Ann Blandford ◽

Julian Edbrooke-Childs ◽

Paul Marshall

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Stress Management ◽

High School Teachers ◽

School Environment ◽

Digital Health ◽

Well Being ◽

Workplace Stress ◽

School Teachers ◽

Management Tools ◽

Health Technologies

Background Persistent psychosocial stress is endemic in the modern workplace, including among midcareer high school (secondary comprehensive) teachers in England. Understanding contextual influences on teachers' self-management of stress along with their use of digital health technologies could provide important insights into creating more usable and accessible stress support interventions. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the constraints on stress management and prevention among teachers in the school environment and how this shapes the use of digitally enabled stress management tools. Methods Semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 teachers from southern England. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Teachers were unanimous in their recognition of workplace stress, describing physical (such as isolation and scheduling) and cultural (such as stigma and individualism) aspects in the workplace context, which influence their ability to manage stress. A total of 12 participants engaged with technology to self-manage their physical or psychological well-being, with more than half of the participants using consumer wearables, but Web-based or smartphone apps were rarely accessed in school. However, digital well-being interventions recommended by school leaders could potentially be trusted and adopted. Conclusions The findings from this study bring together both the important cultural and physical contextual constraints on the ability of midcareer high school teachers to manage workplace stress. This study highlights correlates of stress and offers initial insight into how digital health interventions are currently being used to help with stress, both within and outside high schools. The findings add another step toward designing tailored digital stress support for teachers.

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Attitudes towards digital health tools for outpatient cirrhosis management in patients with decompensated cirrhosis

BMJ Innovations ◽

10.1136/bmjinnov-2019-000369 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 18-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Patricia Pringle Bloom ◽

Madeline Marx ◽

Thomas J Wang ◽

Bradley Green ◽

Jasmine Ha ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Liver Disease ◽

Qualitative Data ◽

Health Management ◽

Digital Health ◽

Healthcare Delivery ◽

Smartphone Application ◽

Management Tool ◽

Decompensated Cirrhosis ◽

Semistructured Interview ◽

Early Readmission

BackgroundTechnology represents a promising tool to improve healthcare delivery for patients with cirrhosis. We sought to assess utilisation of technology and preferred features of a digital health management tool, in patients with an early readmission for decompensated cirrhosis.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study of patients readmitted within 90 days for decompensated cirrhosis. A semistructured interview obtained quantitative and qualitative data through open-ended questions.ResultsOf the 50 participants, mean age was 57.6 years and mean (range) model for end stage liver disease was 22.7 (10–46). Thirty-eight (76%) patients own a Smartphone and 62% have regular access to a computer with internet. Thirty-nine (78%) patients would consider using a Smartphone application to manage their cirrhosis. Forty-six (92%) patients report having a principal caregiver, of which 80% own a Smartphone. Patients were interested in a Smartphone application that could communicate with their physician (85%), send medication notifications to the patient (65%) and caregiver (64%), transmit diagnostic results and appointment reminders (82%), educate about liver disease (79%), regularly transmit weight data to the doctor (85% with ascites) and play a game to detect cognitive decline (67% with encephalopathy). Common themes from qualitative data include a desire to learn about liver disease and communicate with providers via digital tools.ConclusionAmong patients with cirrhosis with an early readmission for decompensation, most have Smartphones and would be willing to use a Smartphone to manage their disease. Future digital health management tools should be tailored to the use patterns and preferences of the patients with cirrhosis and their caregivers.

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All that Glitters Is not Gold: Consumer Health Informatics and Education in the Era of Social Media and Health Apps

Yearbook of Medical Informatics ◽

10.15265/iy-2016-045 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 25 (01) ◽

pp. 188-193 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

P. Staccini ◽

L. Fernandez-Luque ◽

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Health Informatics ◽

Health Management ◽

Digital Health ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

Consumer Health Informatics ◽

Consumer Health ◽

Chronic Patients

Summary Objective: To summarize the state of the art published during the year 2015 in the areas related to consumer health informatics and education with a special emphasis on unintended consequences of applying mobile and social media technologies in that domain. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of articles published in PubMed with a predefined set of queries, which lead to the selection of over 700 potential relevant articles. Section editors screened those papers on the title, abstract, and finally complete paper basis, taking into account the papers’ relevance for the section topic. The 15 most representative papers were finally selected by consensus between the two section editors and submitted for full review and scoring to external reviewers and the yearbook editors. Based on the final scoring, section editors selected the best five papers. Results: The five best papers can be grouped in two major areas: 1) Digital health literacy and 2) Quality and safety concerns. Regarding health literacy issues of patients with chronic conditions such as asthma, online interventions should rather focus on changing patient beliefs about the disease than on supporting them in the management of their pathology since personally controlled health management systems do not show expected benefits,. Nevertheless, encouraging and training chronic patients for an active online health information–seeking behaviour substantially decreases state anxiety level. Regarding safety and privacy issues, even recommended health-related apps available on mobile phones do not guarantee personal data protection. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that patients undergoing Internet interventions experienced at least one adverse event that might be related to treatment. At least, predictive factors have been identified in order to credit or not a health rumour. Conclusions: Trusting digital and connected health can be achieved if patients, health care professionals, and industrials build a shared model of health data management integrating ethics rules. Only increasing efforts in education with regards of digital health would help reach this goal., This would not resolve all frauds and security issues but at least improve their detection.

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Collaborative Environments for the Health Monitoring of Chronically Ill Children

Handbook of Research on Informatics in Healthcare and Biomedicine ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-982-3.ch032 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 246-254 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

G. Caniatsas ◽

K. Starida ◽

Dimitrios I. Fotiadis

Keyword(s):

Home Care ◽

Information Technologies ◽

Medical Information ◽

Health Management ◽

Healthcare Delivery ◽

Information Provision ◽

Healthcare Services ◽

Management Tools ◽

Asynchronous Collaboration ◽

Care Systems

A revolution is taking place in the healthcare field with information technology (IT) playing an increasingly important role in its delivery. Healthcare providers are exploring IT opportunities in reducing the overall costs of healthcare delivery while improving the quality of its provision to citizens. Healthcare services have accumulated great benefits from the application of information technologies, telecommunications and management tools. Internet, wireless, and handheld technologies have the capability to affect healthcare by improving quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of work. Healthcare information systems include a wide range of applications ranging from diagnostic tools to health management applications and from inpatient to outpatient monitoring services. Home-care systems address patients and their families and provide the means to manage their health status related to a specific health problem. Home-care systems include a wide variety of offered services such as: (a) directory services (hospital location, doctor specialties), (b) computer patient records (CPR) along with interfaces for interoperability, (c) certified medical information provision, (d) interfacing to specialized medical monitoring devices, and (e) synchronous and asynchronous collaboration services. All these services are offered, most of the time, through secure and seamless networks.

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Costs of treating community-acquired bacterial bronchopneumonia in pediatric patients

RUDN Journal of Medicine ◽

10.22363/2313-0245-2021-25-1-39-47 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 39-47

Author(s):

Y. P. Ochoa ◽

Y. J. Abreu ◽

G. P. Mateo

Keyword(s):

Pediatric Patients ◽

Health Management ◽

Digital Health ◽

Indirect Costs ◽

Health Institution ◽

Budget Analysis ◽

Disease Costs ◽

Crisis Conditions ◽

Hospital Institution ◽

Complex Scenario

Relevance. Health management has not escaped the pressure of the current epidemiological situation. In a complex scenario, characterized by the COVID-19 pandemic, the daily dynamics become more complex and greater agility is required for decision-making. Much of the success of those decisions is determined by access to timely information, especially in crisis conditions and limited resources. For this reason, health organizations are interested in knowing the costs of pathologies that frequently constitute causes of hospitalization. In this sense, community - acquired bacterial bronchopneumonia stands out, which is a disease that frequently causes hospitalization of pediatric patients. Objective. This article aims to carry out a partial retrospective financial evaluation in order to determine the costs associated with the treatment of community-acquired bacterial bronchopneumonia in pediatric patients. Materials and methods. The study was developed from the perspective of the health institution General Hospital Guillermo Luis Fernndez Hernndez - Baquero in the city of Moa. For this, the analysis - synthesis and comparative methods were used, as well as the methodology to calculate and analyze disease costs. Results. The research focused on the January-March quarters of the years 2017 and 2018 and provided valuable accounting information regarding the direct and indirect costs of the treatment of the pathology in question, which serves as a tool for the correct management of the hospital institution. Conclusion . The direct costs exceeded the indirect costs and the items that most affected the total cost were the salaries of the workers, food, and medicines used to treat the disease. The need to develop digital health was evidenced, with special emphasis on digital medical records to facilitate access to them and thus avoid the loss of information due to its deterioration. The study provides useful information to the management of the health institution, which serves as support for budget analysis and future projections.

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