Clinician Perspectives and Design Implications in Using Patient-Generated Health Data to Improve Mental Health Practices: Mixed Methods Study.

Danny T Y Wu,Chen Xin,Jyoti Sachdeva,Shwetha Bindhu,Heekyoung Jung,Catherine Xu,Jennifer L Brown

doi:10.2196/18123

Abstract

BackgroundPatient-generated health data (PGHD) have been largely collected through mobile health (mHealth) apps and wearable devices. PGHD can be especially helpful in mental health, as patients’ illness history and symptom narratives are vital to developing diagnoses and treatment plans. However, the extent to which clinicians use mental health–related PGHD is unknown.ObjectiveA mixed methods study was conducted to understand clinicians’ perspectives on PGHD and current mental health apps. This approach uses information gathered from semistructured interviews, workflow analysis, and user-written mental health app reviews to answer the following research questions: (1) What is the current workflow of mental health practice and how are PGHD integrated into this workflow, (2) what are clinicians’ perspectives on PGHD and how do they choose mobile apps for their patients, (3) and what are the features of current mobile apps in terms of interpreting and sharing PGHD?MethodsThe study consists of semistructured interviews with 12 psychiatrists and clinical psychologists from a large academic hospital. These interviews were thematically and qualitatively analyzed for common themes and workflow elements. User-posted reviews of 56 sleep and mood tracking apps were analyzed to understand app features in comparison with the information gathered from interviews.ResultsThe results showed that PGHD have been part of the workflow, but its integration and use are not optimized. Mental health clinicians supported the use of PGHD but had concerns regarding data reliability and accuracy. They also identified challenges in selecting suitable apps for their patients. From the app review, it was discovered that mHealth apps had limited features to support personalization and collaborative care as well as data interpretation and sharing.ConclusionsThis study investigates clinicians’ perspectives on PGHD use and explored existing app features using the app review data in the mental health setting. A total of 3 design guidelines were generated: (1) improve data interpretation and sharing mechanisms, (2) consider clinical workflow and electronic health record integration, and (3) support personalized and collaborative care. More research is needed to demonstrate the best practices of PGHD use and to evaluate their effectiveness in improving patient outcomes.

Highlights

Background and SignificanceWith advances in mobile technology and the pervasive use of wearable devices, a large amount of digital health data have been generated by patients
A total of 3 research questions arise from this: (1) What is the current workflow of mental health practice and how are Patient-generated health data (PGHD) integrated into this workflow, (2) what are the clinicians’ perspectives on PGHD and how do they choose a mobile-based app for their patients, and (3) what are the features of current mobile apps in terms of interpreting and sharing PGHD?
This study demonstrated the clinicians’ perspectives on PGHD and the current features of mobile health (mHealth) apps

Summary

Introduction

With advances in mobile technology and the pervasive use of wearable devices, a large amount of digital health data have been generated by patients. Patient-generated health data (PGHD) refer to “health-related data created and recorded by or from patients outside of the clinical setting to help address a health concern,” as defined by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) [1]. Patients seem to have positive attitudes toward PGHD and are willing to share their data with the care team to support long-term health management. Studies have shown the feasibility of using PGHD to support personalized and effective care management [5]. Patient-generated health data (PGHD) have been largely collected through mobile health (mHealth) apps and wearable devices. The extent to which clinicians use mental health–related PGHD is unknown

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