Developing a Mobile Health Application to Communicate Adverse Drug Reactions – Preconditions, Assessment of Possible Functionalities and Barriers for Patients and Their General Practitioners

PURPOSE: Mobile health (mHealth) applications offer structured and timely communication between patients and general practitioners (GPs) about adverse drug reactions (ADR). Preconditions, functionalities and barriers should be studied to ensure safe implementation. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional questionnaire survey addressing (i) preconditions, (ii) users’ assessment of functionalities and (iii) barriers to mHealth managing ADR communication. RESULTS: A total of 480 patients and 31 GPs completed the survey. (i) A total of 269 (56%) patients and 13 (42%) GPs were willing to use mHealth for ADR communication. Willingness was negatively correlated with age for both patients (r = −0.231; p < 0.001) and GPs (r = −0.558; p = 0.002). (ii) Most useful functionalities mentioned by patients (>60%) included “Rapid feedback on urgency of face-to-face consultations.” GPs valued information on “Patient’s difficulties in medication administration.” (iii) In free-text answers, the barrier reported most frequently by patients was “preferred personal GP contact” (6%), whereas GPs claimed, “uncomplicated use with low expenditure of time and personnel” (19%). CONCLUSION: Older patients and GPs mainly show reservations about mHealth for ADR communication but recognize possible benefits. mHealth implementation should avoid a negative effect on GPs’ time budgets; the primary goal should not be to reduce the number of GP-patient contacts but to optimize them.