The Development of a Mobile Health App to Support HIV Medication Adherence

Background:  The use of mobile phones is on the rise, and with it mobile health: per the latest data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 85% of all adults in the US own cell phones, and one third of them have used their phones to look up health information, compared to 17% two years ago. Smartphone owners are even more likely to gather health information on their phones, making a mobile platform ripe for innovation in areas such as medication adherence. Medication adherence – the act of taking medication as prescribed – is a critical part of a daily regimen for many people who are living with HIV, and remains a challenging prospect for many individuals.

Program background: The CDC partnered with John Snow, Inc (JSI) to come up with a mobile based approach to help support HIV medication adherence. The goal of creating a mobile application is to allow people living with HIV to not only receive information regarding the importance of staying adherent, but also to easily track and store their own medication information along with other clinically relevant details such as CD4 count and viral load. The goal was to create an app for both Android and iOS (Apple) operating systems that was easy to understand, visually appealing, and secure so that users would enjoy the experience of using the app and consider it a helpful tool in staying adherent their HIV medication.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Formative research and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) was conducted during development to ensure the app design and functionality was focused around the needs of people living with HIV and taking medication. These touch points provided rich detail for use in structuring the application's visual design and functionality. Formative research explored individuals' feelings on adherence, barriers, and ideas to reduce barriers. Results from this research highlighted three critical elements: support (informational and social), personalization (customization and tracking), and integration with other aspects of their care. UAT indicated that test users, all of whom were living with HIV, were generally satisfied with the application design. Most had a positive reaction to reminders and contacts, and all users responded favorably to being able to track lab results received during doctor visits. The majority of users stated they would not be interested in providing information about their adherence to a support buddy, but knew others who would be interested in this feature. Younger participants responded favorably toward having a drop down menu with most commonly used HIV drugs rather than having to enter their drugs manually.   

Conclusions: The app is in the final stages of development and will be released in Summer 2013 for both Android and iOS platforms.

Implications for research and/or practice:  This presentation will combine data on the use of mobile for health purposes with a practical application to help others better understand and leverage an innovative and rapidly expanding health communication channel.