mWELLCARE:An Integrated mHealth System for the Prevention and Care of Chronic Disease

Summary

Major barriers to controlling cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in India and elsewhere are: low detection rates, inadequate use of evidence based interventions and low adherence with these interventions. Primary health care is the appropriate setting for improving the prevention and management of these chronic conditions. The investigators will develop and evaluate an innovative mobile health (mHealth) software application -'m-WELLCARE'- which provides a patient health profile, decision support for clinical care, monitoring and feedback for use in Indian Community Health Centers (CHCs). The investigators will conduct this research following the steps proposed by the medical research council (MRC) for evaluation of complex interventions. Technical development of m-WELLCARE will be conducted, user acceptability appraised and potential barriers overcome. m-WELLCARE will be evaluated in CHCs of two states, Haryana and Karnataka. The use made of m-WELLCARE, its impact on patterns of health care received and changes in risk factors achieved will be evaluated.

Conditions

• Hypertension
• Diabetes
• Depression
• Alcohol Use Disorder

Interventions

OTHER

mWELLCARE

mWELLCARE intervention arm will include a software application loaded on a tablet computer that will be used by Nurse Care Coordinators (posted in community health centers) in the course of their jobs to register patients with hypertension or diabetes, to generate clinical decision support recommendations, to track these patients over time and to improve follow-up care. Decision support recommendations will be printed and given to a doctor, who will make the final call on the management plan that will be used for the patient. Registered patients will also receive customized messages on their mobile phone. In addition, at sites where network connectivity permits, the doctor may also be equipped with a doctor's app on a tablet that will be largely the same as the NCC app.

OTHER

Usual Care

Usual care at the community health centers

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Wellcome Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

  collaborator OTHER

• Public Health Foundation of India

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Dorairaj Prabhakaran · Public Health Foundation of India

• Vikram Patel · London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

30 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-04-30

Primary Completion

2017-09-30

Completion

2017-09-30

Countries

• India

Study Locations