Chronic conditions are a major source of health care costs, mortality, and morbidity expected to contribute to 60% of the global burden of disease by 2020. Although lifestyle change, such as exercise, can drastically reduce the impact of chronic illness, only half of adults meet federal recommendations for 150 minutes of physical activity per week. This challenge is even greater for 1 in 4 older adults with multiple chronic conditions who face significant barriers to self-management. With a focus on individuals with comorbid depression and type II diabetes (D/DM), we are addressing this challenge by promoting physical activity through an approach called “mHealth Teaming”. This approach combines personalized, adaptive walking goals with peer support teams within a mobile health application developed by our collaborators at Palo Alto Research Center. In this talk I will present a pilot study in which we recruited patients with D/DM from Kaiser Permanente Washington (formerly Group Health Cooperative) to use the mobile health application over 6 weeks. I will share insights on feasibility, preliminary efficacy, and social dynamics associated with our mHealth Teaming approach, and conclude with reflections on partnering with an integrated healthcare system on research.
Andrea Hartzler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education at the University of Washington and Co-Director of the Clinical Informatics and Patient-Centered Technologies program (CIPCT). Her research focuses on the human-centered design of collaborative health technologies, which range from social recommenders that match patients with peer mentors in online health communities to dashboards that visualize patient-generated data for clinical conversations. Her goal is to understand the needs of patients and stakeholders with whom patients interact to inform the design of tools that empower people to help one another lead healthy and productive lives. Andrea completed received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics from the University of Washington, where she was a postdoctoral fellow and Research Scientist in the Information School. Before returning as an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, Andrea was an Assistant Investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (formerly Group Health Research Institute).