Assessing the Efficacy of an Educational Smartphone or Tablet App With Subdivided and Interactive Content to Increase Patients' Medical Knowledge: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Thomas Timmers,Sebastiaan Rutten,Koen Lm Koenraadt,Walter Van Der Weegen,Keetie Kremers,Sander Koëter,Dirk Das,Stefan De Boer,Yvette Pronk,Loes Janssen,Babette C Van Der Zwaard,Rutger Ci Van Geenen,Rob Kusters,Dirk Van Oostveen

doi:10.2196/10742

Abstract

BackgroundModern health care focuses on shared decision making (SDM) because of its positive effects on patient satisfaction, therapy compliance, and outcomes. Patients’ knowledge about their illness and available treatment options, gained through medical education, is one of the key drivers for SDM. Current patient education relies heavily on medical consultation and is known to be ineffective.ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine whether providing patients with information in a subdivided, categorized, and interactive manner via an educational app for smartphone or tablet might increase the knowledge of their illness.MethodsA surgeon-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted with 213 patients who were referred to 1 of the 6 Dutch hospitals by their general practitioner owing to knee complaints that were indicative of knee osteoarthritis. An interactive app that, in addition to standard care, actively sends informative and pertinent content to patients about their illness on a daily basis by means of push notifications in the week before their consultation. The primary outcome was the level of perceived and actual knowledge that patients had about their knee complaints and the relevant treatment options after the intervention.ResultsIn total, 122 patients were enrolled in the control group and 91 in the intervention group. After the intervention, the level of actual knowledge (measured on a 0-36 scale) was 52% higher in the app group (26.4 vs 17.4, P<.001). Moreover, within the app group, the level of perceived knowledge (measured on a 0-25 scale) increased by 22% during the week within the app group (from 13.5 to 16.5, P<.001), compared with no gain in the control group.ConclusionsActively offering patients information in a subdivided (per day), categorized (per theme), and interactive (video and quiz questions) manner significantly increases the level of perceived knowledge and demonstrates a higher level of actual knowledge, compared with standard care educational practices.Trial RegistrationInternational Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number ISRCTN98629372; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN98629372 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/73F5trZbb)

Highlights

BackgroundShared decision making (SDM) refers to the process that involves the participation of both the physician and patient to select the best suitable treatment, taking into account the clinical data and patients’ preferences and expectations [1]
Modern health care focuses on shared decision making (SDM) because of its positive effects on patient satisfaction, therapy compliance, and outcomes
Actively offering patients information in a subdivided, categorized, and interactive manner significantly increases the level of perceived knowledge and demonstrates a higher level of actual knowledge, compared with standard care educational practices

Summary

Introduction

BackgroundShared decision making (SDM) refers to the process that involves the participation of both the physician and patient to select the best suitable treatment, taking into account the clinical data and patients’ preferences and expectations [1]. Modern health care increasingly focuses on SDM because of its positive effects on patient satisfaction, therapy compliance, and outcomes [2,3]. One of the key drivers of SDM is the patients’ knowledge about the illness and treatment options available [4]. This knowledge is typically acquired through patient education, and that knowledge is currently primarily transmitted during medical consultations. Modern health care focuses on shared decision making (SDM) because of its positive effects on patient satisfaction, therapy compliance, and outcomes. Patients’ knowledge about their illness and available treatment options, gained through medical education, is one of the key drivers for SDM. Current patient education relies heavily on medical consultation and is known to be ineffective

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