Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Dec 28, 2021
Date Accepted: May 17, 2022
Mobile Health Platform to Augment Behavioral Health in Primary Care: A Feasibility Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Digital and mobile technologies have potential to improve the delivery and scale of integrated care models.
Objective:
We aimed to assess acceptability and feasibility, preliminary clinical outcomes, and implementation barriers of a mobile health platform used to augment an existing integrated behavioral health program.
Methods:
The mobile platform was used by three behavioral health care managers responsible for coordinating disease management in six primary care practices. 89 of 245 individuals (36%) who were referred by their PCP for behavioral health services consented to app-augmented behavioral health care. The mobile health platform functions included chat communication, monthly depression self-report assessments, and psychoeducational content.
Results:
The clinical improvement rate in our sample was 72% although follow-up assessments were only available for 49% of participants. At least one action in the mobile app was completed by 87% of participants (n=78; median=7; IQR=12, 0-130). Behavioral health care managers cited increased documentation burden and language as barriers to use.
Conclusions:
Our pilot of mobile technology in collaborative care highlights important implementation barriers. Future research should systematically evaluate the implementation of digital and mobile health technology in collaborative care.
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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.