Abstract
BackgroundMobile technologies have become capable of changing the paradigm of healthcare services. A clear example is that, nowadays, these technologies are an important instrument for data collection processes, epidemiologic surveillance, health promotion and disease prevention. Therefore, technological tools should be exploited to optimize the monitoring of patients with chronic diseases, including patients who require home oxygen therapy. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of a mobile application in the clinical monitoring of patients under home oxygen therapy.MethodsThis is a randomized controlled trial includes subjects of 18 years or older diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) who are under home oxygen therapy. Subjects will be divided into two arms: the intervention group will include patients who will be monitored with a mobile application, and the control group will include patients monitored by conventional follow-up methods (periodic visits of a respiratory therapist). The following outcome variables will be considered to measure the effect of the intervention: identification of dyspnea self-management, number of acute exacerbations associated with oxygen therapy, and the occurrence of oxygen supply underuse.DiscussionThis study is expected to assess the efficacy of a mobile application in the follow up of patients under home oxygen therapy. It will also determine whether the monitoring of a six-month intervention by a team comprising a physician, a nurse and respiratory therapists can decrease acute exacerbations, determine the most appropriate oxygen dose, and identify the underuse of oxygen systems and supplies.Trial registrationThe study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04820790; date of registration: March 29, 2021)
Highlights
Mobile technologies have become capable of changing the paradigm of healthcare services
Mesquita et al [11] revealed that the quality of life of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients who fail to adhere to oxygen therapy is lower in the long term than that of patients adhering to such therapy
Despite the aforementioned positive experiences in the use of mobile apps for different groups of chronic patients, the number of Latin American and Colombian apps is lesser, and this issue should be addressed since most home oxygen supplies are usually underused by patients, which results in an increase of Health System costs and a decrease in coverage based on the requirement for oxygen cylinders
Summary
Mobile technologies have become capable of changing the paradigm of healthcare services. In a study conducted by Mirkovic et al [18], aaimed at assessing the usability of Connect Mobile — an app that granted access to an online system providing support to cancer patients in the management of health problems and involved final users in the application design — highlighted the importance, the requirement, and the potential of integrating mobile phones and tablets into patient healthcare systems, as well as of respecting and considering the design suggestions made by users [18] In this sense, it would be interesting to approach the clinical monitoring of patients on home oxygen therapy through a mobile app aimed at achieving improvements in the treatment, prescription, information, and safety of patients during in-home healthcare processes. We propose this protocol whose purpose is to assess the efficacy of a mobile app in the monitoring of patients under home oxygen therapy through an intervention aimed at decreasing acute exacerbations and increasing self-management of oxygen supplies at patients’ home
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