BackgroundDespite a proliferation of patient-facing mobile apps for mental disorders, there is little literature guiding efforts to incorporate mobile tools into clinical care delivery and integrate patient-generated data into care processes for patients with complex psychiatric disorders.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to seek to gain an understanding of how to incorporate a patient-provider mobile health (mHealth) platform to support the delivery of integrated primary care–based mental health services (Collaborative Care) to rural patients with posttraumatic stress disorder and/or bipolar disorder.MethodsUsing the Principles for Digital Development as a framework, we describe our experience designing, developing, and deploying a mobile system to support Collaborative Care. The system consists of a patient-facing smartphone app that integrates with a Web-based clinical patient registry used by behavioral health care managers and consulting psychiatrists. Throughout development, we engaged representatives from the system’s two user types: (1) providers, who use the Web-based registry and (2) patients, who directly use the mobile app. We extracted mobile metadata to describe the early adoption and use of the system by care managers and patients and report preliminary results from an in-app patient feedback survey that includes a System Usability Scale (SUS).ResultsEach of the nine Principles for Digital Development is illustrated with examples. The first 10 patients to use the smartphone app have completed symptom measures on average every 14 days over an average period of 20 weeks. The mean SUS score at week 8 among four patients who completed this measure was 91.9 (range 72.5-100). We present lessons learned about the technical and training requirements for integration into practice that can inform future efforts to incorporate health technologies to improve care for patients with psychiatric conditions.ConclusionsAdhering to the Principles for Digital Development, we created and deployed an mHealth system to support Collaborative Care for patients with complex psychiatric conditions in rural health centers. Preliminary data among the initial users support high system usability and show promise for sustained use. On the basis of our experience, we propose five additional principles to extend this framework and inform future efforts to incorporate health technologies to improve care for patients with psychiatric conditions: design for public health impact, add value for all users, test the product and the process, acknowledge disruption, and anticipate variability.

The use of mobile health (mHealth) in Ethiopia’s primary health care system offers a potential solution to improve timeliness and quality for maternal and newborn health care services. It is user-friendly and fosters communication between health care workers and health extension workers to provide quality services across the pregnancy continuum of care.

We report the design and deployment of a mobile health system for patients receiving primary care-based mental health services (Collaborative Care) for post-traumatic stress disorder and/or bipolar disorder in rural health centers. Here we describe the clinical model, our participatory approach to designing and deploying the mobile system, and describe the final system. We focus on the integration of the system into providers’ clinical workflow and patient registry system. We present lessons learned about the technical and training requirements for integration into practice that can inform future efforts to incorporate health technologies to improve care for patients with psychiatric conditions.

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Background: Despite a proliferation of patient-facing mobile apps for mental disorders, there is little literature guiding efforts to incorporate mobile tools into clinical care delivery and integrate patient-generated data into care processes for patients with complex psychiatric disorders. Objective: We sought to gain an understanding of how to incorporate a patient-provider mobile health platform to support the delivery of integrated primary care-based mental health services (Collaborative Care) to rural patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and/or bipolar disorder. Methods: Using the Principles for Digital Development as a framework, we describe our experience designing, developing, and deploying a patient-facing smartphone application that integrates with a clinical patient registry to support Collaborative Care. We extracted mobile metadata to describe the early adoption and use of the system, and report preliminary results from an in-app patient feedback survey that includes a System Usability Scale. Results: Each of the nine Principles for Digital Development is illustrated with examples. The first 10 patients to use the smartphone app have completed symptom measures on average every 14 days over an average period of 20 weeks. The mean System Usability Scale score at week 8 among four patients who completed this measure was 91.9. We present lessons learned about the technical and training requirements for integration into practice that can inform future efforts to incorporate health technologies to improve care for patients with psychiatric conditions. Conclusions: Adhering to the Principles for Digital Development, we created and deployed a mobile health system to support Collaborative Care for patients with complex psychiatric conditions in rural health centers. Preliminary data among the initial users support high system usability and show promise for sustained use. Based on our experience, we propose five additional principles to extend this framework and inform future efforts to incorporate health technologies to improve care for patients with psychiatric conditions: Design for