Shared Decision Making: Connecting Clinicians and Patients to Improve Patient Outcomes

Background: Incorporating health-related apps into medical practice is transforming healthcare. A Multiple Sclerosis @Point of Care clinician app with Watson paired with the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) patient app, My MS Manager^TM, is a practice-based tool designed to enable patients to track and share their MS data with their clinician for shared decision making. The IBM Watson cognitive learning tool answers questions clinicians pose at point of care to improve patient outcomes. 

Objectives: This analysis evaluates how patients and specialists use these mobile apps in shared decision making, and how they can improve patient care.

Methods: To assess how patients and clinicians utilize/value the MSAA My MS Manager^TM patient app and Multiple Sclerosis @Point of Care clinician app and share data, Projects In Knowledge, a CME provider, analyzed data collected from participating patients (9,910) and clinicians (12,234). Data included demographic information, patients and clinician access frequency, clinicians’ self-reported impact of content on their patients’ outcomes, patients’ self-reported impact of the app on their MS management, and patient journal entrees (including pain, daily feeling of well-being, disability, fatigue scale and adherence records). 

Results: Overall findings: 1) patients and clinicians use their respective apps to share timely and relevant data, facilitating shared decision making for improved outcomes; 2) increasing numbers of patients are using the patient app to enter their data, track their MS management, and share this data with their clinicians; 3) primary reason for nonadherence is that patients “forgot” – 58%, shining a light on the importance of reminder notifications to prompt adherence; 4) trend shows that patients more engaged in using their app experienced less fatigue (may imply better fatigue management); 5) reduction in fatigue correlated positively with reduced disability; 6) fatigue scale entries continue to increase and represent valuable information for their treating clinicians. 

Conclusions: Management of MS is evolving rapidly and the findings of this analysis show the Multiple Sclerosis @Point of Care dashboard and MSAA patient app, My MS Manager^TM, respectively, allows for clinicians and patients to collaborate in shared decision making that support strategies for interventions, practice change and improved patient outcomes through point of care accessibility.