Empowering Patients Using Smart Mobile Health Platforms: Evidence of a Randomized Field Experiment

2022 | Management Information Systems Quarterly | Citations: 0

Authors: Ghose, Anindya; Guo, Xitong; Li, Beibei; Dang, Yuanyuan

Abstract: With today’s technological advancements, mobile phones and wearable devices have ... Expand

Abstract: With today’s technological advancements, mobile phones and wearable devices have become extensions of an increasingly diffused and smart digital infrastructure. In this paper, we examine mobile health (mHealth) platforms and their health and economic impacts on the outcomes of chronic disease patients. To do so, we partnered with a major mHealth firm that provides one of the largest mobile health app platforms in Asia specializing in diabetes care. We designed and implemented a randomized field experiment based on detailed patient health activities (e.g., steps, exercises, sleep, food intake) and blood glucose values from 1,070 diabetes patients over several months. Our main findings show that the adoption of the mHealth app leads to an improvement in health behavior, which in turn leads to both short term metrics (such as reduction in patients’ blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin levels) and longer-term metrics (such as hospital visits and medical expenses). Patients who adopted the mHealth app undertook higher levels of exercise, consumed healthier food with lower calories, walked more steps and slept for longer times on a daily basis. They also were more likely to substitute offline visits with telehealth. A comparison of mobile versus PC-enabled versions of the same app demonstrates that the mobile version has a stronger effect than PC version in helping patients make these behavioral modifications with respect to diet, exercise, and lifestyle, which ultimately leads to an improvement in their healthcare outcomes. We also compared outcomes when the platform facilitates personalized health reminders to patients vis-à-vis generic (non-personalized) reminders. Surprisingly, we found that personalized mobile messages with patient-specific guidance can have an inadvertent (smaller) effect on patient app engagement and lifestyle changes, leading to a lower health improvement. However, they are more like to encourage a substitution of offline visits by telehealth. Overall, our findings indicate the massive potential of mHealth technologies and platform design in achieving better healthcare outcomes. Collapse

Topics: mobile health mobile application health information system mobile system personalization

Methods: survey experimental group experiment qualitative interview usage data

Theories: cognitive evaluation theory self determination theory

Social value creation through digital activism in an online health community

2021 | Information Systems Journal | Citations: 8

Authors: Chamakiotis, Petros; Petrakaki, Dimitra; Panteli, Niki

Abstract: The study explores how online health communities produce social value by uniting ... Expand

Abstract: The study explores how online health communities produce social value by uniting individuals under a common purpose, to advance healthcare in post-conflict states. We selected MedicineAfrica – a digital platform known for creating social value by providing medical education in regions with under-resourced healthcare systems – and drew on multiple data collection methods. We found that it is through a unique form of digital health activism that social value is created in this context. Drawing on a sociological understanding of digital health activism, we make the following contributions: First, we identify three types of non-economic, social value: cognitive, professional and epistemic. Second, we indicate that social value creation is enabled by three emergent forms of digital health activism (ie, philanthropic, moral and reciprocal activity). Third, we elicit three enabling mechanisms explaining how these forms of activism are technically and socially afforded through the platform's connective capacity and emerging collective practices in tandem with its members' growing commitment. Our article contributes to the growing IS literature on digital activism by offering a framework that elucidates how digital health activism relates to social value creation. The article provides practical implications as to how platforms can enable sustainable online (health) communities. Collapse

Topics: health information system value creation digital platform online community IT career

Methods: qualitative interview case study literature study qualitative content analysis theoretical contribution

Theories: theory of affordance

Is First Impression Relevant in Online Health Support Communities? Preliminary Investigation of the Effects of Social Presence

2021 | HICSS | Citations: 1

Authors: Manga, Joseph; Ayaburi, Emmanuel; Andoh-Baidoo, Francis

Abstract: Patients’ initial impression can influence the kind of reactions they receive an ... Expand

Abstract: Patients’ initial impression can influence the kind of reactions they receive and their subsequent participation. Prior studies use inference models to examine participation as a continuum phenomenon. In the online health supporting communities (OHSCs), distinguishing giving participation from receiving participation provide interesting insights at the granular level. Using social presence theory, this study identifies and uses social presence cues in the initial post of 168 patients to predict patients’ giving and receiving participation in a prominent OHSC. Findings reveal that the social presence cues affected the two participation dimensions differently. Specifically, while intimacy is the most important predictor of giving participation, nonverbal communication is the most important predictor for receiving participation. The study offers important contributions to research and practice. Collapse

Topics: social presence electronic health decision making emergency management information system use

Methods: decision tree classification ANOVA parametric test cross sectional research computational algorithm

Theories: social presence theory

Designing a Gamified Adherence System for Tuberculosis Treatment Support in Urban Vietnam

2021 | HICSS | Citations: 0

Authors: Ostern, Nadine; Perscheid, Guido; Moormann, Jürgen

Abstract: Tuberculosis remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases in Vietnam. Its oc ... Expand

Abstract: Tuberculosis remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases in Vietnam. Its occurrence is exacerbated by erratic treatment, in particular by taking medication only sporadically or if patients discontinue the medication in an early stage. Previous approaches to support treatment adherence focus on monitoring (e.g., tele-observation) or external stimulation (e.g., rewards). These approaches, however, have not yet shown the desired effects. We assert that this is because current approaches focus on combatting the outcome, i.e., erratic treatment, instead of tackling the reasons for treatment noncompliance. Notably, the latter is heavily related to the stigmatization of TB patients and, especially, selfstigmatization. Using a design science research approach, this paper proposes a research plan for developing a gamified information system that aims at reducing patients self-stigmatization, by providing features that support TB patients community building as well as TB patients empowerment. Collapse

Topics: evaluation criteria intrinsic motivation health information system knowledge base usability

Methods: design science design artifact design framework

Theories: cognitive evaluation theory

So, You Trust the Doctor - but the Technology?

2021 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Rahimi, Mohammad; Straub, Detmar W.

Abstract: The mental health crisis is growing in every country and has been labeled the 2 ... Expand

Abstract: The mental health crisis is growing in every country and has been labeled the 21st century silent epidemic. Affordability, accessibility, and lack of trained personnel are among the most pressing issues, acting as obstacles for arriving at a comprehensive solution for this critical global problem, which has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth has the potential to address all the above-mentioned issues. We will conduct an online experiment with 500 subjects who will view a video vignette of a conversation between a patient and a psychiatrist and will be told that the patient has either ADHD or schizophrenia and that the therapy session is either face-to-face (i.e., in-person) or remote (i.e., virtual). Information disclosure is the first step in seeking mental health treatment. Our results will inform scholars and practitioners about the features of systems that encourage people to share/disclose risky and stigmatized information. Collapse

Topics: data breach information exchange electronic health video conference internet technology

Methods: survey experiment theory development experimental design structural equation modeling

The Effect of Grief on HIV Patients’ Need for Informational and Emotional Support

2018 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Liao, Ruochen; Kishore, Rajiv; Bagul, Darshan

Abstract: We apply stage theory of grief to study how HIV/AIDS patients’ emotional states ... Expand

Abstract: We apply stage theory of grief to study how HIV/AIDS patients’ emotional states affect their social support seeking behavior (i) in online communities. We propose that support seekers (i) have different preferences for informational and emotional support as they experience different emotional states. Other members of the community (j) also base their response on the self-expressed emotion of the support seekers (i). We conducted text mining of posts by HIV patients on Poz.com. Linguistic analysis and word count (LIWC) is used to measure the key emotional states of support seekers, information value and emotional value of the posts. As hypothesized, we found that patients who are in the early stages of grief with an emotional state of disbelief seek more informational support, and also receive more informational support from other members. Patients in later stages of grief including those experiencing emotional states of anger and depression are more likely to seek emotional support, and are also likely to receive emotional support. Patients in the yearning stage have the lowest support seeking behavior of all patients, and receive little support in return. This study contributes by showing that patients' need for informational and emotional support is not a static process, their need for a particular type of social support can be changing as they cope with the disease. Collapse

Topics: HIV/AIDS Python privacy website

Methods: survey linguistic analysis NLTK natural language processing descriptive statistic

Weakly Supervised and Online Learning of Word Models for Classification to Detect Disaster Reporting Tweets

2018 | Information Systems Frontiers | Citations: 7

Authors: Palshikar, Girish Keshav; Apte, Manoj; Pandita, Deepak

Abstract: Social media has quickly established itself as an important means that people, N ... Expand

Abstract: Social media has quickly established itself as an important means that people, NGOs and governments use to spread information during natural or man-made disasters, mass emergencies and crisis situations. Given this important role, real-time analysis of social media contents to locate, organize and use valuable information for disaster management is crucial. In this paper, we propose self-learning algorithms that, with minimal supervision, construct a simple bag-of-words model of information expressed in the news about various natural disasters. Such a model is human-understandable, human-modifiable and usable in a real-time scenario. Since tweets are a different category of documents than news, we next propose a model transfer algorithm, which essentially refines the model learned from news by analyzing a large unlabeled corpus of tweets. We show empirically that model transfer improves the predictive accuracy of the model. We demonstrate empirically that our model learning algorithm is better than several state of the art semi-supervised learning algorithms. Finally, we present an online algorithm that learns the weights for words in the model and demonstrate the efficacy of the model with word weights. Collapse

Topics: Twitter criminality knowledge representation natural hazard earthquake

Methods: computational algorithm WordNet semi-supervised learning support vector machine part of speech tagging

Challenging Dominant Frames in Policies for IS Innovation in Healthcare through Rhetorical Strategies

2017 | Journal of the Association for Information Systems | Citations: 23

Authors: Bernardi, Roberta; Constantinides, Panos; Nandhakumar, Joe

Abstract: Information systems (IS) innovation in healthcare is a contested area often char ... Expand

Abstract: Information systems (IS) innovation in healthcare is a contested area often characterized by complex and conflicted relationships among different stakeholders. In this paper, we provide a systematic understanding of the mechanisms through which various actors translate competing visions about health sector reforms into policy and action and, thus, generate contradictions in IS innovation. We argue that we can learn more about the source of such contradictions by examining how competing frames can affect IS innovation in healthcare. We adopt frame theory and rhetorical strategies analysis in the case of health sector reforms in Kenya and focus specifically on the deployment of health information systems (HIS). We make several contributions. First, we demonstrate that policy actors’ adherence to the interests and values represented in a frame is important in determining the choice of a rhetorical strategy and its influence on policy transformation and IS innovation. Second, we develop an understanding of how technology mediates the rhetorical strategies of different actors. In particular, we demonstrate the role of technology in giving continuity to frames, which affects policy change and IS innovation. Keywords: IS Innovation, Healthcare, Policy, Discourse Analysis, Frame Theory, Developing Countries. Collapse

Topics: digital innovation health information system innovation management HIV/AIDS healthcare data

Methods: case study qualitative interview theoretical contribution qualitative content analysis archival research

Decision Making Processes in Online Social Networks: A Comparative Analysis of Health and Financial Online Social Networks

2017 | HICSS | Citations: 0

Authors: Sadovykh, Valeria; Sundaram, David

Abstract: Health and finance are two aspects of life that are crucially important. Health ... Expand

Abstract: Health and finance are two aspects of life that are crucially important. Health and finance sites are the most frequently visited by online participants. The sheer volume of sites and the variety of information and advice available online on those two topics have left individuals with potentially greater support for their decision-making (DM) processes. This paper uses the Netnography qualitative research methodology to understand, explore, and identify the similarities and differences between, and unique features of Health and Financial Online Social Networks (OSNs). Specifically, this paper will study (1) the OSN - assisted DM process (2) the structure and sequence of DM phases in OSN’s and (3) the behaviour of OSN participants across networks. The results suggest that the DM process is supported in both types of OSNs, but the structure and the sequence of DM phases, as well as the participation style across participants on these networks are different. Collapse

Topics: decision making website problem solving decision support system internet technology

Methods: netnography cross sectional research qualitative content analysis field study archival research

Does Online Social Support Work in Stigmatized Chronic Diseases? A Study of the Impacts of Different Facets of Informational and Emotional Support on Self-Care Behavior in an HIV Online Forum

2017 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Wang, Xunyi; Parameswaran, Srikanth; Bagul, Darshan Mahendra; Kishore, Rajiv

Abstract: We build an online social support model of self-care behavior for patients of st ... Expand

Abstract: We build an online social support model of self-care behavior for patients of stigmatized chronic diseases. We conceptualize three dimensions of informational support namely objective information, experiential information, and crowd consensus, and hypothesize their positive effect on self-care behavior. We conceptualize three dimensions of emotional support namely emotional tone, self-disclosure, and community involvement, and hypothesize their positive effect on self-care behavior. We also hypothesize how these dimensions interact with each other in promoting self-care behavior. Using data from 31,132 threads from an online health community for HIV patients, we test our hypotheses using Tobit regression. We find statistically significant support for our hypotheses, except for the interaction of experiential and objective information on self-care. Contrary to our hypotheses, we find that self-disclosure is negatively associated with self-care behavior. Our findings have important implications for management of stigmatized chronic diseases. Collapse

Topics: online community electronic health social presence HIV/AIDS Python

Methods: term frequency–inverse document frequency survey cluster analysis robustness check theory development