Karin Wadell

Background: There is a growing interest in eHealth solutions to enhance access to and use of pulmonary rehabilitation for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Objective: This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of a novel eHealth tool (Me&COPD) to support pulmonary rehabilitation concerning usability, exercise adherence, intensity, progression, and adverse events. Moreover, this study aims to evaluate clinical outcome measures to prepare for a future larger trial. Methods: A multicenter, parallel-group randomized controlled pilot and feasibility trial was conducted in 6 primary health care centers. People with mild to severe COPD were recruited by physiotherapists at the included health care centers and randomized either to the intervention group with access to Me&COPD for 3 months or to the control group receiving usual care. The Me&COPD tool comprised audio-visual and written self-management strategies, including an individually tailored home-based exercise program and interaction with a physiotherapist. The exercise program was prescribed in a face-to-face meeting with a physiotherapist, and thereafter it was regularly reviewed and adjusted through the eHealth tool. The primary outcome, usability, was self-assessed at intervention completion in the intervention group and among participating physiotherapists (n=7) using the Swedish version of the Mobile Health App Usability Questionnaire (S-MAUQ). In addition, use data on exercise adherence, intensity, and progression and adverse events were exported from the eHealth tool. Clinical outcomes, assessed by blinded assessors at baseline and 3 months in the intervention and control groups, included exercise capacity, balance, physical activity level, COPD-related symptoms, and health-related quality of life. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis. Results: In total, 22 participants (women: n=12, 55%), aged 72.3 (SD 8.4) years on average, were included in the intervention (n=15) and control (n=7) groups. The mean overall S-MAUQ scores out of 7 (highest possible usability) were 4.4 (SD 1.5) for participants and 4.5 (SD 1.2) for physiotherapists. Among the subscales, the highest score was assigned to usefulness among participants (S-MAUQ: mean 4.9, SD 1.3) and physiotherapists (S-MAUQ: mean 5.1, SD 1.7). No severe adverse events were registered, although exercise adherence, intensity, and progression evaluation were limited by incomplete exercise session registration. The test procedures and the clinical outcome measures used were found to be feasible for the participants and the assessors. Conclusions: The novel eHealth tool, Me&COPD, seemed feasible in terms of safety and had acceptable usability among people with COPD and participating physiotherapists. Usability may be improved by better organization of the information and simplification of the exercise diary to enable collection of data on exercise adherence, intensity, and progression through the eHealth tool. The test procedures seemed feasible, although the recruitment process needs further consideration. The effectiveness of the intervention remains to be evaluated in a future larger trial. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05086341; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05086341

Background: There is increasing interest in the use of home-based monitoring in people with chronic lung diseases to improve access to care, support patient self-management, and facilitate the collection of information for clinical care and research. However, integration of home-based monitoring into clinical and research settings requires careful consideration of test performance and other attributes. There is no published guidance from professional respiratory societies to advance the science of home-based monitoring for chronic lung disease. Methods: An international multidisciplinary panel of 32 clinicians, researchers, patients, and caregivers developed a multidimensional framework for the evaluation of home-based monitoring in chronic lung disease developed through consensus using a modified Delphi survey. We also present an example of how the framework could be used to evaluate home-based monitoring using spirometry and pulse oximetry in adults with asthma, bronchiectasis/cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and interstitial lung disease. Results: The PANACEA framework includes seven domains (test Performance, disease mANAgement, Cost, patient Experience, clinician Experience, researcher Experience, and Access) to assess the degree to which home-based monitoring assessments meet the conditions for clinical and research use in chronic lung disease. Knowledge gaps and recommendations for future research of home spirometry and pulse oximetry in asthma, bronchiectasis/cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and interstitial lung disease were identified. Conclusions: The development of the PANACEA framework allows standardized evaluation of home-based monitoring in chronic lung diseases to support clinical application and future research.

BACKGROUND There is a growing interest in eHealth solutions to enhance access to and use of pulmonary rehabilitation for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of a novel eHealth tool (Me&COPD) to support pulmonary rehabilitation concerning usability, exercise adherence, intensity, progression, and adverse events. Moreover, this study aims to evaluate clinical outcome measures to prepare for a future larger trial. METHODS A multicenter, parallel-group randomized controlled pilot and feasibility trial was conducted in 6 primary health care centers. People with mild to severe COPD were recruited by physiotherapists at the included health care centers and randomized either to the intervention group with access to Me&COPD for 3 months or to the control group receiving usual care. The Me&COPD tool comprised audio-visual and written self-management strategies, including an individually tailored home-based exercise program and interaction with a physiotherapist. The exercise program was prescribed in a face-to-face meeting with a physiotherapist, and thereafter it was regularly reviewed and adjusted through the eHealth tool. The primary outcome, usability, was self-assessed at intervention completion in the intervention group and among participating physiotherapists (n=7) using the Swedish version of the Mobile Health App Usability Questionnaire (S-MAUQ). In addition, use data on exercise adherence, intensity, and progression and adverse events were exported from the eHealth tool. Clinical outcomes, assessed by blinded assessors at baseline and 3 months in the intervention and control groups, included exercise capacity, balance, physical activity level, COPD-related symptoms, and health-related quality of life. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis. RESULTS In total, 22 participants (women: n=12, 55%), aged 72.3 (SD 8.4) years on average, were included in the intervention (n=15) and control (n=7) groups. The mean overall S-MAUQ scores out of 7 (highest possible usability) were 4.4 (SD 1.5) for participants and 4.5 (SD 1.2) for physiotherapists. Among the subscales, the highest score was assigned to usefulness among participants (S-MAUQ: mean 4.9, SD 1.3) and physiotherapists (S-MAUQ: mean 5.1, SD 1.7). No severe adverse events were registered, although exercise adherence, intensity, and progression evaluation were limited by incomplete exercise session registration. The test procedures and the clinical outcome measures used were found to be feasible for the participants and the assessors. CONCLUSIONS The novel eHealth tool, Me&COPD, seemed feasible in terms of safety and had acceptable usability among people with COPD and participating physiotherapists. Usability may be improved by better organization of the information and simplification of the exercise diary to enable collection of data on exercise adherence, intensity, and progression through the eHealth tool. The test procedures seemed feasible, although the recruitment process needs further consideration. The effectiveness of the intervention remains to be evaluated in a future larger trial. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05086341; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05086341

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most common and deadliest chronic diseases of the 21st century. eHealth tools are seen as a promising way of supporting health care professionals in providing evidence-based COPD care, for example, by reinforcing information and interventions provided to the patients and providing easier access and support to the health care professional themselves. Still, knowledge is scarce on the experience of using eHealth tools from the perspective of the health care professional involved in COPD management. Objective: The study explored the experiences of using an eHealth tool among health care professionals that worked with patients with COPD in their daily clinical practice. Methods: This exploratory qualitative study is part of a process evaluation in a parallel group, controlled, pragmatic pilot trial. Semistructured interviews were performed with 10 health care professionals 3 and 12 months after getting access to an eHealth tool, the COPD Web. The COPD Web, developed using cocreation, is an interactive web-based platform that aims to help health care professionals provide health-promoting strategies. Data from the interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach. Results: The main results reflected health care professionals’ experiences in 3 categories: receiving competence support and adjusting practice, improving quality of care, and efforts required for implementation. These categories highlighted that using an eHealth tool such as the COPD Web was experienced to provide knowledge support for health care professionals that led to adaptation and facilitation of working procedures and person-centered care. Taken together, these changes were perceived to improve the quality of care through enhanced patient contact and encouragement of interprofessional collaboration. In addition, health care professionals expressed that patients using the COPD Web were better equipped to tackle their disease and adhered better to provided treatment, increasing their self-management ability. However, structural and external barriers bar the successful implementation of an eHealth tool in daily praxis. Conclusions: This study is among the first to explore experiences of using an eHealth tool among health care professionals involved in COPD management. Our novel findings highlight that using an eHealth tool such as the COPD Web may improve the quality of care for patients with COPD (eg, by providing knowledge support for health care professionals and adapting and facilitating working procedures). Our results also indicate that an eHealth tool fosters collaborative interactions between patients and health care professionals, which explains why eHealth is a valuable means of encouraging well-informed and autonomous patients. However, structural and external barriers requiring time, support, and education must be addressed to ensure that an eHealth tool can be successfully implemented in daily praxis. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02696187; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02696187

Background: Among people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), low level of daily physical activity (PA) is the main risk factors for developing cardiovascular, metabolic, and musculoskeletal comorbidities. Increasing PA in people with COPD is complex as PA behavior itself is complex and multifaceted, including personal, physiological, and psychological elements as well as social and environmental factors. Although eHealth solutions such as web-based support or websites have shown positive effects on PA in people with COPD, the results are inconclusive, and it is still unclear how eHealth solutions might be used to support positive changes in PA behavior in people with COPD. Objective: This study aimed to explore the perceptions of increasing objective PA when using a web-based eHealth tool among people with COPD. Methods: This study was part of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial with in-depth interviews between the 3- and 12-month follow-ups. The methodology used was constructivist grounded theory. All sampling included participants from the randomized controlled trial intervention group, that is, participants who had access to the eHealth tool in question and agreed to be contacted for an in-depth interview. Inclusion of participants continued until data saturation was reached, resulting in an inclusion of 13 (n=7, 54% women) participants aged between 49 and 84 years and living in 8 municipalities in Middle and Northern Sweden. Two interviews were conducted face-to-face, and the remaining interviews were conducted via telephone. All interviews were recorded using a Dictaphone. Results: The analysis resulted in 3 main categories: welcoming or not welcoming action, having or lacking resources, and lowering the threshold. The first 2 categories contain barriers and facilitators, whereas the third category contains only facilitators. The categories lead to the more latent theme Perceiving enough control to enable action, meaning that it seems that perceiving the right amount of control is essential to maintain or increase the level of PA when using an eHealth tool among patients with COPD. However, the right amount of control seemed to depend on the individual (and context) in question. Conclusions: The core category indicates that a need for a certain sense of control was interpreted as necessary for increasing the PA level as well as for using an eHealth tool to help increase the PA level. The eHealth tool seemed to strengthen or weaken the perception of control by either providing support or by being too demanding on the user. Perceptions varied depending on other environmental factors. The Fogg Behavior Model illustrated how motivational levels, ability levels, and functional triggers interact within our findings. Thus, this study provides further evidence for the importance of empowering the patients to boost their level of agency and their ability to improve PA levels. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030788