1. Erin Murray1, Rebecca Daly1, Duncan Hill 1,2, Derna Campbell1
Designing a Patient Information Smartphone Application for Patients Receiving Generic Buprenorphine for Opioid Substitution Therapy.
Erin Murray1, Rebecca Daly1, Duncan Hill 1,2, Derna Campbell1
1. School of Pharmacy, SIPBS, University of Strathclyde 2. NHS Lanarkshire
Aim
The purpose of the project was to design a patient information smartphone application for patients receiving generic buprenorphine for opioid substitution therapy (OST).
Background
The concept of this app came about after a change in prescribing of Suboxone® and Subutex® to generic buprenorphine, but there was a noted lack of generic patient information on the use of buprenorphine
Method
Conduct a number of interviews with patients to identify what information they would have liked to know about buprenorphine, before and during treatment.
Develop initial pilot app for initial feedback and comments from patients.
Revise app from comments received and evaluate with patients.
Results
Eighteen patients were interviewed to determine what they would most want as part of the information provided on buprenorphine; “Contact Numbers” and “Opioid Overdose Information” were ranked the highest for the (years) and age groups, respectively.
Figure 1: Average scores from pre-app development to determine desirability of features, score from 0 -5 on benefit from feature and frequency of use.
After research into app software and the trialling of different app design websites, an app was constructed.
The pilot app was trialled with four patients in a substance misuse clinic. The feedback from these patients was the app was a good idea but appeared “plain” and “basic”.
The app was updated using a different app design website that could accommodate more features.
The updated app version was trialled with 13 patients % strongly agree that they would be likely to download the app and the majority of this sample rated the app as “Very Good”.
Figure 2: patient views on statements relating to the app
Conclusion/Discussion
Figure 3: patient rating the overall app.
Conclusion
The patient response to the App was positive, rating the app as “Very good” or excellent. Nearly 60% of patients strongly agreed they would be likely to use the app. There were requests from the patients asking if they could already download the app.
Contact details: Duncan Hill: