3cisd

3C Institute

Mobile Technology and Online Tools to Track Adherence in Chronic Illness Patients

CDC
ID: 2R44DP003101-02
PI: JANEY MCMILLEN, MELANIE LIVET
TERM: 09/13 – 09/16

With one out of every four youth in the United States currently living with a chronic illness, it is critically important to empower youth to take ownership of their own healthcare. Research suggests that a key component of a successful transition from pediatric care into adult-focused health care systems is proper management of treatment regimens. Unfortunately, treatment adherence among adolescents with chronic illness is disappointingly low, with poor adherence found in 50-70% of all patients. Reviews of adherence studies indicate the risk of treatment nonadherence declines with greater disease- and treatment-related knowledge and that providing a behavioral management component optimizes adherence.

The goal of this Phase II SBIR project was to continue the research and development of the Online Medical Monitoring System (OMMS), an integrated online and mobile technology infrastructure specifically designed to (a) enhance youths’ disease- and treatment-related knowledge through interactive and game-based educational materials; (b) support adherence to the treatment regimen through customized task prompts via mobile and web-based delivery; and (c) promote patient-provider communication through real-world data collection and synchronized feedback loops. During Phase II, we built on Phase I feedback to finalize the fully functioning product and conduct a field test examining the degree to which the OMMS enhances treatment adherence outcomes among adolescents with a variety of chronic illnesses.

This Phase II project accomplished three specific aims: 1) fully developed the OMMS product; 2) conducted a field test of the benefits of the OMMS with adolescents with chronic illness; and 3) finalized the OMMS and ready for broad scale commercialization. To our knowledge, the OMMS is the first technology product that integrates educational, adherence tracking, and patient-provider communication tools into one comprehensive, streamlined package. We found the OMMS to effectively provide essential information and much needed support to youth with chronic illness to help them successfully negotiate their treatment regimen and transition into self-managed healthcare.

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DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.