Examining a Digital Health Approach for Advancing Schizophrenia Illness Self-Management and Provider Engagement: Protocol for a Feasibility Trial

BACKGROUND: In schizophrenia spectrum populations, adherence to treatment is poor, community-based supports are limited, and efforts to foster illness self-management have had limited success. These challenges contribute to frequent, lengthy, and costly hospital readmissions and poor functional outcomes. Digital health strategies, in turn, hold considerable promise in the effort to address these problems. OBJECTIVE: This feasibility trial will examine a digital health platform called App4Independence (A4i), which was designed to enhance illness self-management and treatment engagement for individuals with schizophrenia. METHODS: Feasibility metrics in this single-blind, randomized trial include study recruitment and retention, rate of technology use, safety, and utility in clinical interactions. Other outcome metrics include symptomatology, treatment adherence, patient-provider alliance, and quality of life. In this trial, 160 study participants with schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses will be randomized to either treatment or control conditions, with pretest-posttest outcomes measured over a 6-month period. RESULTS: This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in January 2020 and received Institutional Review Board approval on August 13, 2020. This study plans to begin recruiting in January 2021 and will be completed within 3 years. Data collection is projected to begin in January 2021. CONCLUSIONS: This research will provide critical information for the development of this new technology in the larger effort to address a key problem in the schizophrenia field—how to leverage technology to enhance illness self-management and care engagement in resource-limited service contexts. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/24736