AB1393 RHEUMABUDDY4.0 LEADING THE PATH TO A PATIENT-DRIVEN ELECTRONIC SUPPORT AND MONITORING TOOL

Abstract

Background: The use of health apps has become more popular in recent years, but it is still a small and rather unregulated market. Few apps have been designed in collaboration with patients and these mostly address patient reported symptoms. Some clinical registries have already developed patient apps to complete patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) on smartphones, which normally would have been collected during an outpatient visit and have shown interchangeability. The next step would be providing a patient app offering possibilities not only of individual disease tracking, but to provide automated peer support, health information and behavioural advice. Objective(s): We aimed to further develop and validate RheumaBuddy, a health app for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), from a standard monitoring app to an intelligent health app tailored to the needs of the user that provides transparency to all important stakeholders in Rheumatology care. Method(s): This is an international interdisciplinary project between Austrian and Danish partners funded by the EUREKA program. Rheumatologists, health scientists, digital data experts and patients with RA joined forces in a 4 phase-program, running from 2020 to 2023. Phase 1 continues to develop the app in a co-creation approach in several iterations with patients. Phase 2 concerns developing an automated learning algorithm based on user data to identify patient strata and connect these with helpful non-pharmacological interventions. Phase 3 connects healthcare system data on diagnosis, medication prescription, healthcare facility usage with a large clinical RA database. By that we develop patient pathways that correlate high granularity data with system resources to retrieve results on socioeconomic impact. In phase 4 a randomised clinical trial will evaluate the effect of the developed RB4.0 on clinical disease activity and quality of life. Result(s): Currently, RB is regularly being used by more than 3100 patients in 35 countries and 8 languages throughout Europe. The current RheumaBuddy version offers logging of symptoms using Likert scale questions, a joint mannequin to mark painful body parts and a peer-support forum. Additionally, the user can anytime display his/her entries over time in a graphical report and also share data with the healthcare provider. This version is extended with tracking of sleep, working hours and other behaviours. A consultation compass function helps the patient to refect on goals and issues before the rheumatologist visit. Within this project, we already established a frst version of a Recommender System (RS), which computes correlations between user entries (e.g. between a user's mood and pain), thus providing individual feedback. Through integration of information obtained from the app with claims data and clinical data from a RA registry, patterns can be identifed and translated into different case models that concern the impact of common RA symptoms. By mapping these scenarios with evidence based behaviour and lifestyle advice, the 'virtual coach' (advanced RS) will be developed and integrated into the RB4.0 system. During continuous data collection on app users, similarities in user behaviour can be identifed, and similar entry patterns can be grouped. This will allow users to exchange and learn from each other regarding certain difficult situations (ex. 'life-hack') etc. We are creating a comprehensive system in providing feedback to both clinical and psychosocial aspects of coping and disease management, as well as everyday practicalities for living with a chronic disease. Figure 1 displays these aspects, contributing the empowerment of patients. Conclusion(s): RheumaBuddy4.0 will provide RA patients the means to improve their quality of life on an individual level, better understand their needs and therapy which could support overcoming barriers of successful shared decision making to achieve better outcomes.