JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have set ambitious HCV elimination targets for 2030. Current estimates show the U.S. is not on pace to meet elimination targets due to multiple patient, clinic, institutional, and societal level barriers that contribute to HCV testing and treatment gaps. Selected barriers include general lack of awareness for testing and treatment needs, misinformation concerning adverse treatment reactions, need for substance use sobriety, and treatment efficacy could benefit from expanded health literacy. Strategies to improve viral hepatitis education are needed.

Objective:

Provide an interactive, high quality HCV educational application for patients. The application was vetted by healthcare providers and was designed to guide users through the HCV testing and treatment stages in a self-exploratory way to promote engagement and knowledge retention. The application is comprised of five learning modules: 1-Testing for HCV; 2-Tests for HCV Positive Patients; 3-Treatments Available; 4-What to Expect During Treatment; 5-What to Expect After Treatment.

Methods:

An HCV knowledge assessment survey was administered to providers and patients at the Yale School of Medicine and 11 Connecticut HIV clinics. Identified gaps and initial pilot testing were used to guide application design. The application went live in November 2019 and analysis was conducted on data queried in November 2022.

Results:

From November 2019 to November 2022, 561 individual users downloaded the application from 29 different countries. Of these, 216 (38.5%) users accessed the training modules. Of these, 151 (69.9%) used the application for up to 60 minutes and 65 (30.1%) used it for >60 minutes. For those who used it up to 60 minutes, the average time spent was 9.5 minutes. The average time between initial download and last use for those who accessed the application >60 minutes after downloading was 44 days. Users followed a non-sequential pattern of module use, choosing the ones they were most interested in. Module 1 had 163 (75%) users, Module 4 had 82 (38%), Module 5 had 67 (31%), Module 3 had 49 (23%), Module 2 had 41 (19%).

Conclusions:

This application is one of a few available in English and Spanish that provides content-vetted HCV education for patients enabling on-demand and interactive access. Disseminating use of this application will assist in bridging testing and treatment gaps, crucial for achieving HCV elimination.