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Mobile User Interface for Palliative Care Patients

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Palliative care is a field that serves to benefit enormously from the introduction of mobile medical applications. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic intend to address a reoccurring dilemma, in which palliative care patients visit the emergency room during situations that are not urgent or life-threatening. Doing so unnecessarily…

Palliative care is a field that serves to benefit enormously from the introduction of mobile medical applications. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic intend to address a reoccurring dilemma, in which palliative care patients visit the emergency room during situations that are not urgent or life-threatening. Doing so unnecessarily drains the hospital’s resources, and it prevents the patient’s physician from applying specialized care that would better suit the patient’s individual needs. This scenario is detrimental to all involved. A mobile medical application seeks to foster doctor-patient communication while simultaneously decreasing the frequency of these excessive E.R. visits. In order to provide a sufficient standard of usefulness and convenience, the design of such a mobile application must be tailored to accommodate the needs of palliative care patients. Palliative care is focused on establishing long-term comfort for people who are often terminally-ill, elderly, handicapped, or otherwise severely disadvantaged. Therefore, a UI intended for palliative care patients must be devoted to simplicity and ease of use. The application must also be robust enough that the user feels that they have been provided with enough capabilities. The majority of this paper is dedicated to overhauling an existing palliative care application, the product of a previous honors thesis project, and implementing a user interface that establishes a simple, positive, and advantageous environment. This is accomplished through techniques such as color-coding, optimizing page layout, increasing customization capabilities, and more. Above all else, this user interface is intended to make the patient’s experience satisfying and trouble-free. They should be able to log in, navigate the application’s features with a few taps of their finger, and log out — all without undergoing any frustration or difficulties.
ContributorsWilkes, Jarrett Matthew (Co-author) / Ganey, David (Co-author) / Dao, Lelan (Co-author) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Thesis director) / Faucon, Christophe (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
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Reducing Polypharmacy with Mobile Apps Among Mental Health Patients

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Polypharmacy among psychiatric patients is a concerning trend. From 2007-2010, 58.2% of women and 41.8% of men reported taking five or more prescription drugs within the last 30 days (CDC, 2014). Negative outcomes include prescription drug abuse, side effects, interactions, treatment failure, patient dissatisfaction, and lack of treatment control. The…

Polypharmacy among psychiatric patients is a concerning trend. From 2007-2010, 58.2% of women and 41.8% of men reported taking five or more prescription drugs within the last 30 days (CDC, 2014). Negative outcomes include prescription drug abuse, side effects, interactions, treatment failure, patient dissatisfaction, and lack of treatment control. The associated practice challenges have led to the following PICOT question. In persons with mental health issues receiving care at an outpatient mental health clinic, does engaging in mindfulness practice versus no mindfulness practice change polypharmacy use over a 3-month period?

The project purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of Insight Timer mobile mindfulness app at helping patients self-manage distressing symptoms and reduce polypharmacy. Over three weeks, mental health clinic nurse practitioners (NPs) voluntarily recruited patients (n=12) over age 18 using as needed prescriptions (PRNs), and agreed to use Insight Timer mobile mindfulness app for adjunct symptom management. Consenting participants downloaded the mobile app, and completed a brief questionnaire measuring PRN use at the start of app use, and PRN use at their next visit. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated a 10-week mindfulness app trial did not significantly lower total PRN doses compared with pre-app dosing (Z = -.534, p = .593). Paired t-tests revealed no significant change in pre (M = 65.17, SD = 28.64) versus post (M = 67.75, SD = 20.22) OQ45 life functionality results (t(11) = -.420, p = .683) (d = .121) as a result of app use.

Clinically relevant results illustrated 83.33% of participants taking greater than nine PRN doses over the study period used the app six times or more in place of medication. High PRN users employed the app frequently in place of medication regardless of total PRN doses taken. Practice implications and sustainability recommendations include incorporating mobile app use in treatment plans for high PRN users and educating NP’s on the tangible benefits of mindfulness apps in reducing polypharmacy and easing symptom distress on an ongoing basis.
Keywords: mindfulness, mhealth, mobile apps, mobile smart phone, online, RCT, behavior change, polypharmacy.
ContributorsPierce, Albert (Author) / Guthery, Ann (Thesis advisor)
Created2019-04-29