Using Mobile Technology to Enhance Early Psychosis Treatment Delivery

Summary

This project tests the feasibility of implementing a smartphone application - Ginger.io - in the UC Davis Early Psychosis Program, and investigates whether mobile health technology can improve treatment delivery and outcomes in individuals with early psychosis. Ginger.io is a smartphone application that utilizes methods of passive data collection (i.e. data gathered without active interaction/contribution from the user) to gather communication, movement, and interaction data from smartphone devices to model individuals' social, physical, and mental health. These models are used to infer health-related outcomes and could inform treatment. By implementing the Ginger.io application in the UC Davis Early Psychosis Program with an integrated clinical and research infrastructure, the investigators will be able to quickly determine its feasibility for use in early psychosis populations, while simultaneously developing its ability to systematically capture aspects of relapse and recovery that are unique to this patient population.

Objectives: This project has three principle objectives related to early psychosis care: 1) improve treatment delivery, 2) improve patient outcomes, and 3) lower treatment costs. The project will target individuals in the early stages of psychotic illness, including individuals at high risk for developing a psychotic illness (termed "clinical high risk" or CHR) and individuals within three years of their first psychotic episode (termed "first episode psychosis" or FEP). The early stages of psychotic illness represent a critical period for intervention; early identification of clinical deterioration and subsequent targeted intervention is crucial for rapid remission of symptoms and reduced relapse rates. However, without the information necessary to identify patients in need of such intervention, providers are limited in their ability to respond rapidly. Within the UCD Early Psychosis Program, a mobile health application such as Ginger.io has the potential to equip the providers and caregivers with valuable insight into a patient's status in real-time without the burden of increased appointments and intrusive monitoring, allowing the identification of early psychosis patients most in need of outreach, and routing of treatment resources to the right patients at the right time.

Conditions

• Psychosis
• Clinical High Risk for Psychosis

Interventions

OTHER

Mobile health application - Ginger.io

the Ginger.io is a smartphone application allowing for daily surveys assessing mood and social interactions, and weekly surveys assessing symptoms and psychosocial functioning. Collects passive movement and interaction data

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Ginger.io

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• University of California, Davis

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Tara A Niendam, Ph.D. · UC Davis Dept of Psychiatry

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

13 Years

Max Age

30 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-12-14

Primary Completion

2015-11-01

Completion

2015-11-01

Countries

• United States

Study Locations