A cognitive behavioral therapy-based mobile app can be effective in treating depression symptoms, but is more effective in combination with an employee assistance program, according to a new study by Orcas of their MoodHacker app.
"To date, very few randomized clinical trials of mobile apps targeting depression and emotional well-being have been published in the peer-reviewed literature," Michael...
Adherium, the Australian connected inhaler company that partnered with AstraZeneca earlier this summer, has released data from three small studies of the company's Smartinhaler system. Data from the studies, all of which involved children and adolescents, indicate a 144 percent increase in adherence for patients using the connected devices, a 14.9 percent increase in lung function and a 37...
Some 80 percent of people were more motivated to manage their health after using an activity tracker, according to a randomized control trial from March 2014 of 600 patients who are pre-diabetic and morbidly obese.
The study, which lasted six months, was conducted by Cigna. The activity trackers used were made by BodyMedia, which was acquired by Jawbone. The devices have since been discontinued...
MyHeart Counts, an app based on AHA guidelines.
A new review published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, looked at mobile health interventions around cardiovascular health over the last 10 years and concluded that a number of improvements are needed to the general state of mobile health efficacy studies.
"Our literature searches uncovered a wide variety of products...
The National Cancer Institute has awarded Jonathan Bricker, a behavioral scientist and faculty member at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, with a five-year, $3.1 million grant to conduct a randomized controlled trial of SmartQuit, a smoking-cessation app.
SmartQuit is based on acceptance and commitment therapy, or an ACT-based program, that "focuses on increasing one’s willingness to accept...
Patients with diabetes may be more likely benefit from a mobile phone-based health coaching program with remote monitoring than patients with heart disease, according to a study of 267 heart patients and 250 diabetes patients, which was conducted in 2012 by researchers in Finland and published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
The trial lasted one year and examined whether using a...
Dr. Jay Widmer discusses the study in a Mayo Clinic video.
A meta-analysis published last month in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings shows that, in general, digital health interventions can be of great benefit in improving outcomes for cardiovascular disease. Mayo Clinic researchers poured through 588 abstracts from the past 25 years, eventually winnowing them down to 51 RCTs and cohort studies,...
Geisinger Health System's patient portal.
Research conducted on patient portals in the last three years shows they provide some measurable benefits, but studies are spotty and don't include a single randomized control trial, according to a new systematic review in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
"Very few studies associated use of the patient portal, or its features, to improved...
A recently-published 8-week study of diabetes patients, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, showed that only about 20 percent used an app provided by their clinician with any sort of regularity. Of those, only half were active users.
In the small study, a group of Singaporean researchers recruited 84 patients with type 2 diabetes, many of whom were recently diagnosed. They...
A mobile intervention, called FitBack, that personalizes health content for the user is an effective tool to help patients improve their nonspecific lower back pain (NLBP), according to a study, conducted by health app intervention developer ORCAS with help from insurance company Cigna, that was recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
The American College of Physicians (...
