Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Aug 4, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 9, 2018 - Oct 4, 2018
Date Accepted: Jan 30, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Use of a design-thinking approach to develop a text-messaging tool to engage low-income patients with chronic medical conditions.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Two-way interactive text messaging between patient and community health workers through mobile phone short message service (SMS) is a form of digital health that can be used cost-effectively to enhance patient engagement.
Objective:
We developed a two-way interactive communication SMS tool to enhance child/adolescent patient engagement between patients and/or caregivers and community health workers.
Methods:
We applied a design thinking methodology for development of the SMS tool. We collected qualitative data from 127 patients/caregivers and 13 community health workers, healthcare professionals, and experts. Four iterative phases were used to design the final prototype.
Results:
Outcomes from the design thinking process led to the final SMS tool that integrated multi-user feedback. The SMS tool was transformed from a one-dimensional, template-driven prototype (phases 1 and 2) into a dynamic interactive and individually tailored tool (phases 3 and 4). The individualized components consider social factors that influence patients’ ability to engage such as transportation issues and appointment reminders. SMS tool components also include operational factors to support staff such as patient contact lists, SMS templates, and technology chat support.
Conclusions:
Our SMS tool may be useful to patients who are unable, due to lack of resources such as time, data and Wi-Fi, to interact face-to-face with their healthcare team. We recommend that developers use hybrid computer-human interactions that utilize existing low cost and easy to use technology, such as SMS text messaging, in order to optimize personalized experience and the likelihood of enhanced patient engagement.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.