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haMSter: a smartphone application for tracking patient reported outcomes in people with multiple sclerosis: protocol for a pilot study
Patrick Altmann;
Werner Hinterberger;
Fritz Leutmezer;
Markus Ponleitner;
Tobias Monschein;
Tobias Zrzavy;
Gudrun Zulehner;
Barbara Kornek;
Rupert Lanzenberger;
Klaus Berek;
Paulus Stefan Rommer;
Thomas Berger;
Gabriel Bsteh
ABSTRACT
Background:
Treatment and monitoring decisions in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) are based commonly on clinician reported outcomes (CROs). These reflect physical and radiological disease activity and are the most relevant endpoints in clinical trials. Over the past few years, the number of studies evaluating so-called patient reported outcomes (PROs) has been increasing. PROs are reports from patients concerning their own health perception. They are typically obtained by means of questionnaires and aim to quantify symptoms such as fatigue, depression or sexual dysfunction. The emergence of PROs has made a tremendous contribution to understanding the individual impact of disease in people with MS (pwMS) and their health-related quality of life. However, the assessment of PROs consumes resources of time and personnel. Thus, useful ways to conveniently introduce PROs into clinical practice are needed.
Objective:
To provide a rationale and pilot study protocol for a mobile health solution named “haMSter” that allows for remote monitoring of PROs in pwMS.
Methods:
The core function of haMSter is to provide three scientifically validated PROs relevant to MS for patients to fill out at home once a month. Thereby, longitudinal and remote documentation of PROs is enabled. A scoring algorithm graphically plots PRO scores over time and makes them available at the next visit.
Results:
A pilot study is currently ongoing and will evaluate adherence to this mobile-health (m-health) solution in 50 patients using haMSter over a period of six months.
Conclusions:
haMSter is a novel m-health based solution to modern PRO research which may constitute a first step in achieving to integrate PROs in clinical practice. This allows for a more problem-oriented approach in monitoring visits that addresses the patient’s needs and, ultimately, saves time. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04555863.