TY - JOUR
T1 - Mobile app requirements for patients with rare liver diseases
T2 - A single center survey for the ERN RARE-LIVER
AU - Rüther, Darius F.
AU - Sebode, Marcial
AU - Lohse, Ansgar W.
AU - Wernicke, Sarah
AU - Böttinger, Erwin
AU - Casar, Christian
AU - Braun, Felix
AU - Schramm, Christoph
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to express gratitude to Elaine Hussey for proofreading the English translation of questionnaires and text editing of the manuscript, and to the patients who volunteered to participate and the staff of the YAEL outpatient clinic who helped with recruitment.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Masson SAS
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Background: More patient data are needed to improve research on rare liver diseases. Mobile health apps enable an exhaustive data collection. Therefore, the European Reference Network on Hepatological diseases (ERN RARE-LIVER) intends to implement an app for patients with rare liver diseases communicating with a patient registry, but little is known about which features patients and their healthcare providers regard as being useful. Aims: This study aimed to investigate how an app for rare liver diseases would be accepted, and to find out which features are considered useful. Methods: An anonymous survey was conducted on adult patients with rare liver diseases at a single academic, tertiary care outpatient-service. Additionally, medical experts of the ERN working group on autoimmune hepatitis were invited to participate in an online survey. Results: In total, the responses from 100 patients with autoimmune (n = 90) or other rare (n = 10) liver diseases and 32 experts were analyzed. Patients were convinced to use a disease specific app (80%) and expected some benefit to their health (78%) but responses differed significantly between younger and older patients (93% vs. 62%, p < 0.001; 88% vs. 64%, p < 0.01). Comparing patients’ and experts’ feedback, patients more often expected a simplified healthcare pathway (e.g. 89% vs. 59% (p < 0.001) wanted access to one's own medical records), while healthcare providers saw the benefit mainly in improving compliance and treatment outcome (e.g. 93% vs. 31% (p < 0.001) and 70% vs. 21% (p < 0.001) expected the app to reduce mistakes in taking medication and improve quality of life, respectively). Conclusion: Our results underline the great desire for disease-specific apps but also the need to involve patients and healthcare providers in the development of such apps in order to achieve long-term use and, thereby, improvements of patient care and research. The results of this study will help tremendously to implement the first cross-country app that communicates with an ERN patient registry.
AB - Background: More patient data are needed to improve research on rare liver diseases. Mobile health apps enable an exhaustive data collection. Therefore, the European Reference Network on Hepatological diseases (ERN RARE-LIVER) intends to implement an app for patients with rare liver diseases communicating with a patient registry, but little is known about which features patients and their healthcare providers regard as being useful. Aims: This study aimed to investigate how an app for rare liver diseases would be accepted, and to find out which features are considered useful. Methods: An anonymous survey was conducted on adult patients with rare liver diseases at a single academic, tertiary care outpatient-service. Additionally, medical experts of the ERN working group on autoimmune hepatitis were invited to participate in an online survey. Results: In total, the responses from 100 patients with autoimmune (n = 90) or other rare (n = 10) liver diseases and 32 experts were analyzed. Patients were convinced to use a disease specific app (80%) and expected some benefit to their health (78%) but responses differed significantly between younger and older patients (93% vs. 62%, p < 0.001; 88% vs. 64%, p < 0.01). Comparing patients’ and experts’ feedback, patients more often expected a simplified healthcare pathway (e.g. 89% vs. 59% (p < 0.001) wanted access to one's own medical records), while healthcare providers saw the benefit mainly in improving compliance and treatment outcome (e.g. 93% vs. 31% (p < 0.001) and 70% vs. 21% (p < 0.001) expected the app to reduce mistakes in taking medication and improve quality of life, respectively). Conclusion: Our results underline the great desire for disease-specific apps but also the need to involve patients and healthcare providers in the development of such apps in order to achieve long-term use and, thereby, improvements of patient care and research. The results of this study will help tremendously to implement the first cross-country app that communicates with an ERN patient registry.
KW - Autoimmune hepatitis
KW - European reference networks
KW - Mobile applications
KW - Patient reported outcome measures
KW - Primary biliary cholangitis
KW - Primary sclerosing cholangitis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111930117&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.clinre.2021.101760
DO - 10.1016/j.clinre.2021.101760
M3 - Article
C2 - 34325014
AN - SCOPUS:85111930117
SN - 2210-7401
VL - 45
JO - Clinics and Research in Hepatology and Gastroenterology
JF - Clinics and Research in Hepatology and Gastroenterology
IS - 6
M1 - 101760
ER -