2F-5 ENGAGING A HIGH-RISK PREGNANCY POPULATION: RESULTS FROM A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT PILOT OF THE MYHEALTHYPREGNANCY APP

Monday, October 24, 2016: 5:00 PM
Bayshore Ballroom Salon F, Lobby Level (Westin Bayshore Vancouver)

Tamar Krishnamurti, PhD1, Hyagriv Simhan, MD, MS2, Alexander Davis, PhD3, Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, PhD1, Octavio Mesner, MS1, Baruch Fischhoff, PhD1 and Yoel Sadovsky, MD2, (1)Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, (2)Magee-Women's Research Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, (3)Department of Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Purpose: The burden of adverse birth outcomes to the healthcare system and society is great, with a US preterm birth prevalence rate over 11% and a conservative annual $26.2B estimate of associated costs. Here, we assessed the effectiveness of a personalized pregnancy risk reduction smartphone app at engaging a high risk patient population.

Method: The MyHealthyPregnancy smartphone app is a pregnancy tool that delivers patient-specific risk feedback to its users, including fetal health monitoring through a fetal “kick” counter, pregnancy education, behavioral nudges (e.g. reminders), and access to critical resources, including transportation to routine prenatal appointments, and real-time alerts to medical staff when patients report high-risk events (e.g. suicidal ideation), or clinical indicators (e.g. preterm contractions). With the goal of measuring participants’ voluntary use of the app, we recruited a proof-of-concept patient sample (n = 16) from the Magee-Womens Hospital outpatient clinic (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) for a three-month participation period, drawing women across pregnancy trimesters. 

Result: Participants demonstrated a high level of engagement with the app, with an attendance rate of 85.7% at routine prenatal appointments, compared with 50% for the non-participant clinic population. Attendance was even higher (91.8%) among those who scheduled transportation to their appointments through the app. While no participants reported behavioral risk factors at a baseline enrollment interview, real-time data collection through the app was able to identify cases of intimate partner violence, depression, routine smoking, and marijuana use. 

Conclusion: These findings suggest that the MyHealthyPregnancy app is a helpful means of communicating and gathering personal health risk information. It provides an easily accessible format for detection of changes in risk, such as intimate partner violence, at more frequent intervals than is possible by routine medical care. Moreover, by increasing appointment attendance rates, it shows potential for significant savings to the healthcare system.

See more of: ORAL ABSTRACTS: POPULATION HEALTH RESEARCH

See more of: 38th Annual North American Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making