Dipping at home: is it better, easier, and more convenient? A feasibility and acceptability study of a novel home urinalysis using a smartphone application.

BACKGROUND: Monitoring proteinuria in patients with kidney disease is of crucial importance given its implications for long-term disease progression and clinical management. Leveraging digital health technology to provide a clinical grade urinalysis result from home holds the potential to greatly enhance the clinical experience and workflows for patients, caregivers, and providers. The goal of this study was to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of a home-based urinalysis kit using a smartphone application. METHODS: This is a prospective cohort study of children and young adults (5-21 years of age) at a single pediatric center. The study received ethical board approval. Families performed a home urine test using the Healthy.io smartphone app. The app was compared with standard of care of either home dipstick monitoring or urinalysis performed in clinic or a local laboratory. Patient satisfaction was compared between the new app and current practice. RESULTS: A total of 103 children, 63 (61%) male and median age 10.9 years (inter-quartile range 7.8-14.2), were enrolled. Primary diagnosis included 47 (46%) glomerular disease, 48 (47%) non-glomerular kidney disease, and 8 (8%) kidney transplant recipients. One hundred and one (98%) patients reported being satisfied with the smartphone app compared to 41 (40%) patients who were satisfied with the current practice for urine protein monitoring (p < 0.0001). Positive themes identified included ease of use, convenience, and immediacy and accuracy of results. CONCLUSIONS: The Healthy.io home urine testing app received very high rates of satisfaction among patients and caregivers compared to current practice and holds great potential to enhance patient-centered care. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.

Applying a community-based participatory research approach to improve access to healthcare for Eritrean asylum-seekers in Israel: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Israel hosts approximately 50,000 asylum seekers, most of them from Eritrea. Exclusive policies restrict their access to healthcare. In 2013, local activists partnered with Eritrean asylum seekers to assess health needs as well as willingness to pay for health insurance among the Eritrean communities. This initiative was meant as a step towards jointly advocating access to Israel's public healthcare system and towards strengthening collective efficacy among the asylum-seeking communities, as well as a first attempt to apply a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to migrant health research in Israel. METHODS: Applying a CBPR approach, a 22-item survey was developed by a team of activists, academics and community members. It was administered by community members in four different cities. Cell weighting was applied to align sample estimates with the population distribution. The results were analyzed by means of a Generalized Linear Model. Six follow-up interviews and two focus group discussions helped interpret the quantitative findings and provided additional information. RESULTS: The results from 445 questionnaires show that most (95%) asylum seekers are interested in purchasing health insurance. To this end, more than half of the respondents are willing to invest up to 300 NIS monthly, which represents a significant part (5-7.5%) of their median monthly income. Willingness to pay for health coverage was independent from employment and income; it was significantly associated with city of residence - which translates into current healthcare options - understanding of health insurance, and health seeking motives. The study further highlights the role of labor policies in shaping not only asylum seekers' access to care but also psychosocial wellbeing. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides initial evidence for asylum seekers' willingness to pay monthly contributions into a public health insurance scheme, in spite of economic hardship, and it points to understanding of and trust in the healthcare system as a central factor influencing willingness to pay. The outcomes of this initiative further offer some support for the potential of CBPR to enhance research into the health of marginalized populations and, moreover, to counter their social exclusion through capacity building and strengthening of collective efficacy.

Real-Time Monitoring and Evaluation of a Visual-Based Cervical Cancer Screening Program Using a Decision Support Job Aid.

In many developing nations, cervical cancer screening is done by visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA). Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of such screening programs is challenging. An enhanced visual assessment (EVA) system was developed to augment VIA procedures in low-resource settings. The EVA System consists of a mobile colposcope built around a smartphone, and an online image portal for storing and annotating images. A smartphone app is used to control the mobile colposcope, and upload pictures to the image portal. In this paper, a new app feature that documents clinical decisions using an integrated job aid was deployed in a cervical cancer screening camp in Kenya. Six organizations conducting VIA used the EVA System to screen 824 patients over the course of a week, and providers recorded their diagnoses and treatments in the application. Real-time aggregated statistics were broadcast on a public website. Screening organizations were able to assess the number of patients screened, alongside treatment rates, and the patients who tested positive and required treatment in real time, which allowed them to make adjustments as needed. The real-time M&E enabled by "smart" diagnostic medical devices holds promise for broader use in screening programs in low-resource settings.

MobileODT: a case study of a novel approach to an mHealth-based model of sustainable impact.

A persistent challenge facing global health actors is ensuring that time-bound interventions are ultimately adopted and integrated into local health systems for long term health system strengthening and capacity building. This level of sustainability is rarely achieved with current models of global health intervention that rely on continuous injection of resources or persistent external presence on the ground. Presented here is a case study of a flipped approach to creating capacity and adoption through an engagement strategy centered around an innovative mHealth device and connected service. Through an impact-oriented business model, this mHealth solution engages stakeholders in a cohesive and interdependent network by appealing to the pain points for each actor throughout the health system. This particular intervention centers around the MobileODT, Inc. Enhanced Visual Assessment (EVA) System for enhanced visualization. While focused on challenges to cervical cancer screening and treatment services, the lessons learned are offered as a model for lateral translation into adjacent health condition verticals.

Making sense out of the tonsillectomy literature.

BACKGROUND: With the increase in new technology and changing indications for tonsillectomy, the literature has exploded during the last 20 years with scores of publications reporting the relative effectiveness of many different techniques. Despite this "wealth of information," no single technique has been adopted by most surgeons. OBJECTIVES: To systematically analyze the usefulness of this literature of the past 20 years concerning tonsillectomy technique in children. To propose the use of specific study parameters that could optimize clinical decision-making and future research. METHODS: Detailed review of the methodologies and findings in articles which compared one or more tonsillectomy techniques in clinical trials of children, ages 1-23 years from 1987 through 2007. RESULTS: The Medline search revealed 255 papers of which 89 studies were suitable for inclusion in our review. In these 89 studies (found in 87 papers), 9 dissection techniques, 3 planes of dissection, 8 methods of hemostasis, and 41 different outcome measures were reported. Forty-four (49%) were described as randomized, 63 (71%) prospective, 25 retrospective (28%), 1 case report, 1 matched pair, and 9 case series papers. Sixteen (18%) trials were non-blind, 23 (26%) were single blind, 17 (19%) were double blind, and 7 (8%) were not stated. Seventy-five (84%) were comparative and 14 (16%) non-comparative. Eight (9%) studies reported power analyses. Twelve (13%) had no follow-up; 67 (75%) of the studies performed had short-term follow-up in the peri-operative period; 10 (11%) had follow-up for greater than 1 year. Eleven (12%) mentioned outcomes related to the effectiveness of the procedure itself in relieving symptoms for which the surgery was done. CONCLUSIONS: Tonsillectomy technique research is of obvious interest to the otolaryngologist. We found deficits in: the precise reporting of surgical techniques, adequate study design and useful outcome measures, all of which make the literature less useful than it could be. Guidelines for study design parameters which could lead to more valuable information for the clinician are suggested.