PlusCare: Mobile platform to increase linkage to care in adolescents living with HIV/AIDS

Project Summary With the advancement of medical treatmentswhich has contributed to the overall decrease in opportunistic infections and deaths related to human immunodeficiency virusHIVin youththere is a need to ensure that youth living with HIVYLHare linked to and engaged in care to successfully achieve viral suppressionWhile an increasing number of mobile healthmHealthtechnologies have been designed to address HIV prevention and carea critical gap in innovation remains in tools designed to address the specific needs of YLHIn a Phase I projectwe demonstrated the acceptability and feasibility of a user centered prototype design of PlusCarean mHealth application that can be used by YLH and their case managersCMsto support HIV careResults of Phase I suggest that PlusCare could facilitate multi disciplinaryteam based case management of YLH by supporting the sharing and signing of documents remotelyautomation of adherence reminderssharing of lab resultsalerts CMs about program requirements related to age and developmental milestonesstreamlining of communication between multiple members of a patient s case management team and the patientand offering accessibility to data from multiple modalitiesIn this Phase II projectwe will directly test and demonstrate the effectiveness of PlusCare on HIV case management processes and care continuum outcome measures for YLHWe will accomplish this objective in the followingspecific aimsEnhance PlusCare for generalizability across clinical settings in a formative assessment in Substudywith CMsNand their YLH patients between the ages ofyears oldNat a new siteBuild and demonstrate usability of an enhancedfully functional system with rapiditerative usability testing in Substudywith CMsNand patientsNandConduct a mixed methodsnon randomized pre post study in Substudywith CMsNand patientsNto evaluate the effectiveness of PlusCare of case management processes and health outcomesi eHIV viral loadmedical visit frequency and gapsindifferent case management programs atdifferent clinical sitesAn initial cost analysis will be performed to assess potential cost effectiveness Results of these Phase I and II projects will validate a product that can be used in multiple case management settings and prepare PlusCare for commercialization in a potential Phase IIIResults have implications for future development of PlusCare to serve the broader HIV populationYLH agedyears old and at risk individualsas well as youth living with other chronic health conditions Project Narrative While major advancements in medical technology over the past decade have significantly improved the life expectancy of persons infected with human immunodeficiency virusHIVHIV positive youth today face new barriers to the treatment of HIV as a chronicmanageable illnessThe mobile system proposed will help improve linkage to care through mobile technology support for the case management of youth living with HIVResults of this project will determine the impact of this system on case management processes and outcomes and have implications for the care of youth living with other chroniccomplex illnesses