Mobile-health Approach to Gather Clinical Information From Patients Following Hospital Discharge

The purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility of using a mobile-health approach to gather clinical data from patients following discharge from the hospital on outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT). The study population will consist of adult participants who have a smartphone that is capable of both text messaging and pairing with a Bluetooth thermometer that will be provided. Following discharge, patients will be asked to respond to two daily text messages. They will also be reminded to take and send in photos of any skin rashes that may develop as well as their PICC-line site during dressing changes. Text messages will be sent for up to 30 days, but will be stopped sooner if the patient is readmitted to the hospital or if OPAT is discontinued. At the end of the 30 days, all patients will be sent a text message survey about usability, the time it took to complete the study tasks, suggestions for future improvements, and whether they would be willing to be interviewed via phone. A subset of the participants will be interviewed via phone to obtain more detailed feasibility data. Information from the patient's medical record will be collected at the time of hospital discharge as well as at the end of the study period. Additionally, a focus group (via conference call) will be conducted with all research team members and infectious disease physicians involved in OPAT who did not use the system to gauge their needs and to get ideas for future applications of our tools.