According to a statement emailed to MHW, new research “Empowering Patients Using Smart Mobile Health Platforms: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment,” from NYU Stern Professor Anindya Ghose and co-authors, Beibei Li of Carnegie Mellon University and Xitong Guo of the Harbin Institute of Technology, explores how emerging mobile health (mHealth) technologies can persuade chronic-disease patients to modify their behaviors, better manage their care, and achieve improved health outcomes, including reductions in hospital visits and medical expenses over time.
This first-of-its-kind study combines data from a major mHealth firm in China, as well as the Office of Chronic Disease Management in China to evaluate the potential value of technologies such as mobile health apps and mobile-enabled EHRs as well as the importance of mHealth platform design in achieving better health care outcomes.
Analyzing almost 10,000 unique responses from diabetes patients over 15 months, the study reveals:
“By assisting patients with behavior modification and disease self-management, mHealth platforms have tremendous potential for improving health outcomes and reducing medical costs,” Professor Ghose explains. “With this research, companies have an opportunity to better understand patients’ interaction with mHealth technology and design elements that will be most effective for patient adoption and engagement.”
With an estimated 50% of smartphone and tablet users now downloading mHealth applications and a market growing at a rate close to 50%, mHealth technologies have the potential to transform the way patients communicate with their healthcare providers, evaluate health recommendations, and implement their chronic-disease therapy.