Shared Decision Making through Mobile Technology: Formula for Improved Patient Outcomes

Background: Healthcare is being transformed through the integration of mobile devices/health-related apps into medical practice for busy clinicians. The Multiple Sclerosis @Point of Care app for clinicians with cognitive learning tool @sk With Watson, paired with the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) patient app, My MS Manager^TM, facilitates shared decision making between the clinician and patient by securely sharing patient data. @sk With Watson answers questions clinicians pose at point of care to improve patient outcomes.

Objectives: This analysis evaluates how clinicians and patients use these apps, questions they address, correlations between symptom reporting and QOL, insights they provide clinicians to better manage patients’ MS, and how they can improve patient care.

Methods: To assess how clinicians and patients utilize/value their respective apps, data was collected and analyzed from 27,000+ clinicians caring for MS patients who use the Multiple Sclerosis @Point of Care app as well as 14,000+ patients with MS participating with the MSAA's My MS Manager^TM patient app. Data includes demographic information, clinician and patient monthly access frequency, motivators for patient app use, clinicians’ queries posed to Watson, correlation of symptoms with patient QOL, clinicians’ self-reported impact of content on their patients’ health outcomes, patients’ self-reported positive effects of patient app use on their MS management, and gender differences in pain/fatigue that affects patient management. 

Results: Overall analysis findings: 1) clinicians and their patients use the Multiple Sclerosis @Point of Care clinician app and My MS Manager^TM patient app, respectively, enabling patients to share their data with clinicians to improve their outcomes; 2) many clinicians agree the clinician app, Multiple Sclerosis @Point of Care, and My MS Manager^TM patient app data provide timely, relevant information that positively impacts patients’ health outcomes; 3) increasing numbers of patients are using the My MS Manager^TM app to enter data, track their MS management, and share this data with their clinicians; 4) gender differences provide valuable information for treating clinicians.

Conclusions: MS management, utilizing the Multiple Sclerosis @Point of Care dashboard and My MS Manager^TM patient app, facilitates clinician/MS patient shared decision making that support strategies for practice change and improved patient outcomes through point of care accessibility.