Can We Use Commercial Mobile Apps Instead of Research Mobile Apps in Healthcare Research?

Sezgın, Emre

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.685439

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…In addition, there are few applications in Spanish that focus on mental health, and are attractive and easy to find (Grau‐Corral et al, 2020), and those available in English language lack randomized clinical trials studies to assess their efficacy, what calls for further research in this area (Miralles & Granell, 2019). Similarly, Sezgin (2021) highlighted the difficulties of implementing apps in mental health settings, as they should be backed by scientific evidence (Larsen et al, 2019), but also because given the economic difficulty of conducting long‐term observations, many of the created applications have not been implemented.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspective of patients with first‐episode psychosis, their relatives, and mental health professionals on the design and usability of an app in clinical practice

Domínguez,

Sánchez‐Balcells,

Vila‐Badia

et al. 2023

Early Intervention Psych

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AimTherapeutic non‐compliance remains the main difficulty for people with psychotic disorders, standing around 50% in people with schizophrenia. Lack of treatment adherence, either partial or total, to medication has economic and clinical consequences. E‐health technologies may be a promising therapeutic tool to improve adherence, with the subsequent reduction in clinical and economic burden. Our aims were to know the preferences on how technologies in mental health treatment should be for use in clinical practice, and to learn about the opinion and preferences on the use of technologies in mental health treatment from the perspectives of patients with FEP, their relatives, and mental health professionals.MethodsForty‐one patients with a diagnosis of first‐episode psychosis (FEP), 18 relatives and 49 mental health professionals were included in the study. They completed an online survey related to the use, availability and user‐skill of online platforms and apps created by a group of experts in psychosis and in the use of technologies. Data were summarized in frequencies, percentages, and means, and Chi‐square tests were used to calculate differences between‐groups.ResultsAn app directed to people with psychosis would be well received by users if it contains psychoeducational material, offers reminders for scheduled visits and treatment and allows online consultations.ConclusionsCo‐creating an app with users, their families and mental health professionals allows incorporating their preferences to increase its use, improve outpatient care and creating an app that is viable in clinical practice.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspective of patients with first‐episode psychosis, their relatives, and mental health professionals on the design and usability of an app in clinical practice

Domínguez,

Sánchez‐Balcells,

Vila‐Badia

et al. 2023

Early Intervention Psych

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“…The use of “defaults” in technology (Siri as default voice assistant) and human nature (speech as default communication mechanism) creates a window of opportunity to improve human-computer engagement ( 22 , 50 , 51 ). A voice user interface (VUI) with applications helps to overcome barriers of language, literacy and improve digital equity and telehealth practices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Hey Siri, Help Me Take Care of My Child”: A Feasibility Study With Caregivers of Children With Special Healthcare Needs Using Voice Interaction and Automatic Speech Recognition in Remote Care Management

Sezgın

Oiler

Abbott

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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BackgroundAbout 23% of households in the United States have at least one child who has special healthcare needs. As most care activities occur at home, there is often a disconnect and lack of communication between families, home care nurses, and healthcare providers. Digital health technologies may help bridge this gap.ObjectiveWe conducted a pre-post study with a voice-enabled medical note taking (diary) app (SpeakHealth) in a real world setting with caregivers (parents, family members) of children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN) to understand feasibility of voice interaction and automatic speech recognition (ASR) for medical note taking at home.MethodsIn total, 41 parents of CSHCN were recruited. Participants completed a pre-study survey collecting demographic details, technology and care management preferences. Out of 41, 24 participants completed the study, using the app for 2 weeks and completing an exit survey. The app facilitated caregiver note-taking using voice interaction and ASR. An exit survey was conducted to collect feedback on technology adoption and changes in technology preferences in care management. We assessed the feasibility of the app by descriptively analyzing survey responses and user data following the key focus areas of acceptability, demand, implementation and integration, adaptation and expansion. In addition, perceived effectiveness of the app was assessed by comparing perceived changes in mobile app preferences among participants. In addition, the voice data, notes, and transcriptions were descriptively analyzed for understanding the feasibility of the app.ResultsThe majority of the recruited parents were 35–44 years old (22, 53.7%), part of a two-parent household (30, 73.2%), white (37, 90.2%), had more than one child (31, 75.6%), lived in Ohio (37, 90.2%), used mobile health apps, mobile note taking apps or calendar apps (28, 68.3%) and patient portal apps (22, 53.7%) to track symptoms and health events at home. Caregivers had experience with voice technology as well (32, 78%). Among those completed the post-study survey (in Likert Scale 1–5), ~80% of the caregivers agreed or strongly agreed that using the app would enhance their performance in completing tasks (perceived usefulness; mean = 3.4, SD = 0.8), the app is free of effort (perceived ease of use; mean = 3.2, SD = 0.9), and they would use the app in the future (behavioral intention; mean = 3.1, SD = 0.9). In total, 88 voice interactive patient notes were generated with the majority of the voice recordings being less than 20 s in length (66%). Most noted symptoms and conditions, medications, treatment and therapies, and patient behaviors. More than half of the caregivers reported that voice interaction with the app and using transcribed notes positively changed their preference of technology to use and methods for tracking symptoms and health events at home.ConclusionsOur findings suggested that voice interaction and ASR use in mobile apps are feasible and effective in keeping track of symptoms and health events at home. Future work is suggested toward using integrated and intelligent systems with voice interactions with broader populations.

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“…In the rare studies available on unguided cancer-related mHealth apps with no human support [68][69][70], engagement rates were <50%. One reason could be that existing researcher-developed apps are not engaging enough and, therefore, need human support to motivate participants [18,71]. This may be less the case for popular commercial apps, which are typically unguided (eg, Headspace and Calm) [18].…”

Section: Comparison With Prior Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engagement With a Relaxation and Mindfulness Mobile App Among People With Cancer: Exploratory Analysis of Use Data and Self-Reports From a Randomized Controlled Trial

Schläpfer,

Schneider,

Santhanam

et al. 2024

JMIR Cancer

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Background Mobile health (mHealth) apps offer unique opportunities to support self-care and behavior change, but poor user engagement limits their effectiveness. This is particularly true for fully automated mHealth apps without any human support. Human support in mHealth apps is associated with better engagement but at the cost of reduced scalability. Objective This work aimed to (1) describe the theory-informed development of a fully automated relaxation and mindfulness app to reduce distress in people with cancer (CanRelax app 2.0), (2) describe engagement with the app on multiple levels within a fully automated randomized controlled trial over 10 weeks, and (3) examine whether engagement was related to user characteristics. Methods The CanRelax app 2.0 was developed in iterative processes involving input from people with cancer and relevant experts. The app includes evidence-based relaxation exercises, personalized weekly coaching sessions with a rule-based conversational agent, 39 self-enactable behavior change techniques, a self-monitoring dashboard with gamification elements, highly tailored reminder notifications, an educational video clip, and personalized in-app letters. For the larger study, German-speaking adults diagnosed with cancer within the last 5 years were recruited via the web in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Engagement was analyzed in a sample of 100 study participants with multiple measures on a micro level (completed coaching sessions, relaxation exercises practiced with the app, and feedback on the app) and a macro level (relaxation exercises practiced without the app and self-efficacy toward self-set weekly relaxation goals). Results In week 10, a total of 62% (62/100) of the participants were actively using the CanRelax app 2.0. No associations were identified between engagement and level of distress at baseline, sex assigned at birth, educational attainment, or age. At the micro level, 71.88% (3520/4897) of all relaxation exercises and 714 coaching sessions were completed in the app, and all participants who provided feedback (52/100, 52%) expressed positive app experiences. At the macro level, 28.12% (1377/4897) of relaxation exercises were completed without the app, and participants’ self-efficacy remained stable at a high level. At the same time, participants raised their weekly relaxation goals, which indicates a potential relative increase in self-efficacy. Conclusions The CanRelax app 2.0 achieved promising engagement even though it provided no human support. Fully automated social components might have compensated for the lack of human involvement and should be investigated further. More than one-quarter (1377/4897, 28.12%) of all relaxation exercises were practiced without the app, highlighting the importance of assessing engagement on multiple levels.

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Can We Use Commercial Mobile Apps Instead of Research Mobile Apps in Healthcare Research?

Cited by 11 publications

References 12 publications

Perspective of patients with first‐episode psychosis, their relatives, and mental health professionals on the design and usability of an app in clinical practice

Perspective of patients with first‐episode psychosis, their relatives, and mental health professionals on the design and usability of an app in clinical practice

“Hey Siri, Help Me Take Care of My Child”: A Feasibility Study With Caregivers of Children With Special Healthcare Needs Using Voice Interaction and Automatic Speech Recognition in Remote Care Management

Engagement With a Relaxation and Mindfulness Mobile App Among People With Cancer: Exploratory Analysis of Use Data and Self-Reports From a Randomized Controlled Trial

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