Ab0324 development of a mobile app to support self-management in individuals with inflammatory arthritis

Background EULAR has recently highlighted the vital role of digital health in standard practice and the possibility to enhance the self-management abilities of the patients. Self-management strategies play an important role in improving clinical outcomes in patients with inflammatory arthritis. Smartphone technology has the potential to engage the patients with their treating health care professionals through suitable self-monitoring and easy access to information. In addition, having a more accurate summary of self-reported fluctuations in symptoms, psychosocial problems and behaviors can help both the patients and the treating health care professionals better understand the patient’s condition, identify barriers to self-management, and assess treatment effectiveness and additional health care needs. However, evidence regarding these supporting digital tools, including smartphone apps, is currently very limited. So far there is no comprehensive mobile app developed to facilitate the collaboration between the patients and their treating physicians. Objectives 1.To provide basic data on system requirement specifications for a mobile app to self-manage inflammatory arthritis. 2. Identify the target audience, characteristics of the app, and correlations between the system requirements and the established behavior change techniques. Methods A participatory action research design was adopted to inform the app developer of the major themes recognized as the main pillars for the app development, implementing artificial intelligence. Qualitative data were collected using multiple methods in several workshops. Participants were 2 Rheumatologists, 1 rheumatology nurse specialist, 1 rheumatoid arthritis patient, 1 psoriatic arthritis patient, 1 patient Ankylosing spondylitis, and an App/ machine learning engineer. A taxonomy was used to determine the degree of correlation between the system requirements and established behavior change techniques. Results The app targets the optimization of self-management and provide non-medical management approach. The major themes identified were: 1. collect self-reported patient reported outcomes (disease functional ability, quality of life, motivation), 2. Collect information on patient demographics, comorbidity(ies), disease activity status (self-reported disease activity score), past and current medications, 3. Identify the individual patient’s target to be achieved, 4. Develop a patient profile that focuses on the patient’s disease activity status, well-being, targets and attitude, 5. Using artificial intelligence, construction of a personalized, evidence-based disease self-management program based on recommendations from medical guidelines, medical standards, and state-of-the-art clinical research; 6. implementation of personalized recommendations into the patient’s daily life by providing short daily tasks that accelerate positive behavior change. 7. a calendar feature for goal setting, planning, and recording of (HRQoL) performance and progress, 8. a small community feature for positive feedback, support from peers and support the patient in coping with stress, sadness, depression, fatigue, and further disease-related symptoms, 9. Implementation of cognitive behavioral techniques, meditation and relaxation methods, 10. adapt a reward system to motivate end users for using the app, and, 11. Format the app interface. Conclusion These findings highlight the potential of implementing digital therapy to encourage self-management and engagement with health care professional for the management of patients with inflammatory arthritis. The results of this work suggest that using an app-based personalized disease management program may reflect significantly on several measures of patient-reported outcomes and disease activity in patients with RA/PsA/SpA. Future feasibility testing in a prospective study will firmly establish the reliability, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of such an app intervention for this cohort of patients. REFERENCES: NIL. Acknowledgements: NIL. Disclosure of Interests None Declared.