Integration of mHEALTH Into the Care of Patients With Sickle Cell Disease to Increase Hydroxyurea Utilization

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) created the Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium (SCDIC) to apply implementation science methods to identify and address barriers to guideline-based care in sickle cell disease (SCD) and promote evidence-based treatment for SCD patients between ages 15 to 45 years. The SCDIC conducted a systematic literature review and a comprehensive needs assessment among the eight participating centers. A major conclusion was that care redesign to support better hydroxyurea utilization would likely improve clinical outcomes for patients with SCD. Hydroxyurea therapy has been shown to improve patient outcomes and reduce disease complications and is endorsed by the NHLBI. SCDIC now proposes to develop, test and evaluate targeted interventions to improve clinical provider prescribing of and patient adherence to hydroxyurea.

The overall purpose of this proposed project is to address barriers identified by the needs assessment to improve adherence with hydroxyurea therapy. Multiple approaches for improving adherence with pharmaceutical regimens have been studied and demonstrate a need to address barriers that both providers and patients face. This project aims, via a stepped-wedge design, to test two innovative interventions utilizing mobile health (mHealth), to address both patients' and providers' needs: 1) an mHealth application for patients (InCharge Health app) that includes multi-component features to address the memory, motivation, and knowledge barriers to hydroxyurea use, and 2) an mHealth toolbox application for providers (HU Toolbox app) that addresses the clinical knowledge barriers in prescribing and monitoring hydroxyurea use. These two interventions will be tested through the following aims:

Aim 1. Improve Patient Adherence to Hydroxyurea: Addressing Memory, Motivation, and Knowledge Barriers to Hydroxyurea Use. Primary hypothesis: The investigators hypothesize that among adolescents and adults with SCD, the adherence to hydroxyurea, as measured by percentage of days covered (PDC), will increase by at least 20% at 24 weeks after receiving the InCharge Health app, compared to their hydroxyurea adherence at baseline.

Sub-aim 1.a. To examine and assess both patient engagement and behaviors related to use of the InCharge Health app, the investigators will evaluate consistent use of the app among enrolled patients, patient satisfaction, and continued use of the app beyond the study period.

Sub-Aim 1.b. To examine the clinical influence of the use of the InCharge Health app on PDC, patients' clinical outcomes, perceived health literacy, health related quality of life, and perceived self-efficacy between baseline and 24 weeks.

Aim 2. Improve Provider Hydroxyurea Awareness, Prescribing and Monitoring Behaviors. The investigators will examine among providers using the HU Toolbox App if there is an increase in reported awareness of hydroxyurea benefits and risks, accurate prescribing of hydroxyurea, and perceived self-efficacy to correctly administer hydroxyurea therapy between baseline and after 9 months of using the HU Toolbox app.

Sub-Aim 2.a. To examine and assess provider engagement and behaviors related to use of the HU Toolbox, the investigators will evaluate consistent use of the app among enrolled providers, providers' satisfaction, and continued use of the app beyond the study period.

Sub-Aim 2.b. To assess the combined effects of the patient and provider mHealth interventions on hydroxyurea and health care utilization, the investigators will examine if the changes in hydroxyurea adherence are enhanced by the use of both provider and patient interventions compared to those not exposed to one or both interventions.

Aim 3. Identify and Evaluate the Barriers and Facilitators to the use of mHealth Interventions. The investigators will evaluate the strategies used by participating sites in supporting the implementation of mHealth interventions via a mixed-method evaluation of the facilitators and barriers in adopting and implementing the mHealth interventions from multiple stakeholder perspectives: patient, provider, and organization.

Both mHealth interventions will be tested concurrently and because the investigators are using a stepped-wedge design, each site will enter the study at different times. Provider participants will receive the HU Toolbox intervention for 9 months with a lagged but overlapping introduction of the InCharge Health intervention patient participants for 24 weeks. The implementation evaluation will be guided by RE-AIM to assess the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance of the interventions. All sites will also complete follow-on needs assessment and medical record abstractions that will provide data to evaluate other patient and provider outcomes, barriers and enablers to hydroxyurea prescribing, use, and monitoring.

mHealth technology can be leveraged to support more effective use of hydroxyurea and eventually improved SCD clinical outcomes. If the mHealth applications tested in this study show preliminary efficacy, both apps could be scaled up within SCDIC centers and expanded to other institutions outside the SCDIC.