The Telemedicine for Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease (TELE-IBD) Clinical Trial: Qualitative Assessment of Participants' Perceptions.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), comprising Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis, affects 1 to 3 million people in the United States. Telemedicine has shown promise in IBD. The objective of this study, telemedicine for patients with IBD (TELE-IBD), was to compare disease activity and quality of life (QoL) in a 1-year randomized clinical trial of IBD patients receiving telemedicine versus standard care. Treatment groups experienced improvements in disease activity and QoL, but there were no significant differences between groups. Study adherence to the text-based intervention was less than 80%, the targeted goal. OBJECTIVE: To understand adherence to remote monitoring, the goal of this qualitative assessment was to obtain TELE-IBD trial participants' perceptions, including their recommendations for future monitoring. METHODS: In this study, patients attending 3 tertiary referral centers with worsening IBD symptoms in the previous 2 years were eligible for randomization to remote monitoring via SMS text messages (short message service, SMS) every other week, weekly, or standard care. Participants (n=348) were evenly enrolled in the treatment groups, and 259 (74.4%) completed the study. For this study, a purposive sample of adherent (N=15) and nonadherent (N=14) patients was drawn from the TELE-IBD trial population. Adherence was defined as the completion of 80% (278/348) or more of the weekly or every other week self-assessments. Semistructured interviews conducted by phone surveyed (1) the strengths and benefits of TELE-IBD, (2) challenges associated with using TELE-IBD, and (3) how to improve the TELE-IBD intervention. Interviews were recorded, professionally transcribed, and coded based on a priori concepts and emergent themes with the aid of ATLAS.ti, version.7 qualitative data analysis software. RESULTS: Participants' discussions centered on 3 elements of the intervention: (1) self-assessment questions, (2) action plans, and (3) educational messages. Participants also commented on text-based platform, depression and adherence, TELE-IBD system in place of office visit, and their recommendations for future TELE-IBD systems. Adherent and nonadherent participants prefer a flexible system that is personalized, including targeted education messages, and they perceive the intervention as effective in facilitating IBD self-management. CONCLUSIONS: Participants identified clear benefits to the TELE-IBD system, including obtaining a better understanding of the disease process, monitoring their symptoms, and feeling connected to their health care provider. Participants' perceptions obtained in this qualitative study will assist in improving the TELE-IBD system to be more responsive to patients with IBD.

Mobile Diabetes Intervention Study of Patient Engagement and Impact on Blood Glucose: Mixed Methods Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Successful treatment of diabetes includes patient self-management behaviors to prevent or delay complications and comorbid diseases. On the basis of findings from large clinical trials and professional guidelines, diabetes education programs and health providers prescribe daily regimens of glucose monitoring, healthy eating, stress management, medication adherence, and physical activity. Consistent, long-term commitment to regimens is challenging. Mobile health is increasingly being used to assist patients with lifestyle changes and self-management behaviors between provider visits. The effectiveness of mobile health to improve diabetes outcomes depends on patient engagement with a technology, content, or interactions with providers. OBJECTIVES: In the current analysis, we aimed to identify patient engagement themes in diabetes messaging with diabetes providers and determine if differences in engagement in the Mobile Diabetes Intervention Study (MDIS) influenced changes in glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) over a 1-year treatment period (1.9% absolute decrease in the parent study). METHODS: In the primary MDIS study, 163 patients were enrolled into 1 of 3 mobile intervention groups or a usual care control group based on their physician cluster randomization assignment. The control group received care from their physicians as usual. Participants in each intervention group had access to a patient portal where they could record monitoring values for blood glucose, blood pressure, medication changes, or other self-management information while also assigned to varying levels of physician access to patient data. Intervention participants could choose to send and receive messages to assigned certified diabetes educators with questions or updates through the secure Web portal. For this secondary analysis, patient engagement was measured using qualitative methods to identify self-care themes in 4109 patient messages. Mixed methods were used to determine the impact of patient engagement on change in HbA1c over 1 year. RESULTS: Self-care behavior themes that received the highest engagement for participants were glucose monitoring (75/107, 70.1%), medication management (71/107, 66.4%), and reducing risks (71/107, 66.4%). The average number of messages sent per patient were highest for glucose monitoring (9.2, SD 14.0) and healthy eating (6.9, SD 13.2). Compared to sending no messages, sending any messages about glucose monitoring (P=.03) or medication (P=.01) led to a decrease in HbA1c of 0.62 and 0.72 percentage points, respectively. Sending any messages about healthy eating, glucose monitoring, or medication combined led to a decrease in HbA1c of 0.54 percentage points compared to not sending messages in these themes (P=.045). CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study help validate the efficacy of the mobile diabetes intervention. The next step is to determine differences between patients who engage in mobile interventions and those who do not engage and identify methods to enhance patient engagement. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01107015; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01107015 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6wh4ekP4R).