By our members Norwegian Centre for E-health Research (NO)
Mobile health (mHealth) technologies have become synonymous with health self-management. However, the current complexity of mHealth calls for health intervention research to adapt in order to stay relevant.
EHTEL member, the Norwegian Centre for E-health Research, has identified three opportunities for change. Key are patients’ perspectives, new forms of data collection, and more efficient administration:
1. Highlighting patients’ perspectives
Patients determine which functions, information, and support are needed to make mHealth interventions successful. The views of patients are of equal importance as those of healthcare authorities regarding which information research should produce.
2. Modern data collection
Traditionally, research measures what has changed after an intervention. Now, mHealth devices can record how patients use mHealth technology during the interventions themselves. Together, these two data resources enable researchers to understand not only what has changed, but also how and why it changed.
3. Efficient study administration
The turnover of mHealth technologies is happening alarmingly fast. A central web-based platform that streamlines study tasks, e.g., remote participant follow-up and data collection via apps and online surveys, can help researchers keep pace with these changes.
The Norwegian Centre for E-health Research’s Full-Flow Study protocol describes how mHealth technologies can be used in these three ways: as an intervention for patient self-management and data-sharing, as a tool to collect patients’ usage logs, and as a remote study management platform.
This is in line with European initiatives for secondary uses of data for research, as well as EHTEL’s own interests in mHealth tools and uses.
Click the link to see a full description of the protocol: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32039818
Stay tuned for updates: Results are expected by December 2020.
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