New Computer App Tracks/Changes Behavior – Like Smoking
Now, clinicians can match their message to the patient’s readiness for behavioral change with a computer app—Stage-on-Demand (SOD)—that, according to Rhode Island-based Pro-Change, “…allows healthcare providers to assess stage of change for a variety of health risks or health behaviors and provide patients with brief, real-time, tailored, evidence-based behavior change tips based on the patient’s readiness to change.”
“One great example for orthopedics: Quitting smoking prior to elective hip or knee replacement reduces the risk of surgical complications (e.g.,https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170216103943.htm). 80% of smokers want to quit, but only 20% are ready to do so. The rest are not yet ready or are getting ready to do so in the next six months.”
“Therefore, guidance matched to the smoker’s readiness to quit is critical. This tool enables the clinician to provide a message matched to the patient’s readiness to quit smoking and to prescribe a more in-depth online behavior change program to assist the patient in their journey to quitting smoking.”
“When a clinician, care coordinator, or health coach pulls up a patient’s dashboard using Pro-Change, they see a list of lifestyle behaviors on the interactive display. Clicking on a behavior will bring up Pro-Change’s validated stage assessment for that behavior which allows the clinician to quickly and accurately assess stage of change.”
“Once the patient responds, his or her stage of change is plotted on the behavior change profile by the program, and a brief intervention tip specifically designed to engage the patient in the behavior change process is delivered to the patient by way of the program interface.”
“The decision rules that determine which intervention tips are provided are based on rigorous data analytics and robust behavior change theory, which ensures that health professionals are always delivering the right behavior change feedback at the right moment.”
“Additionally, the dashboard allows clinicians to prescribe Pro-Change’s LifeStyle Management Programs for the patient to work on between visits.”
Sara S. Johnson, Ph.D., co-president and CEO of Pro-Change Behavior Systems, Inc., told OTW, “The impetus for the development of the Stage-on-Demand was the recognition that, to realize our goal of improving population health, we need to enable clinicians to deliver brief, evidence-based behavior change messages to patients at each visit.”
“It has been reported that 86% of healthcare spending is driven by patients with chronic diseases. Thus, there is an urgent need to incorporate lifestyle medicine into treatment planning and to create sustainable systems that ensure best practices are used to implement lifestyle medicine with fidelity. Stage-on-Demand is one such system that can be incorporated into an electronic health record.”
“It differs from other similar programs in that it leverages 30+ years of best practices in behavior change science. Patients differ in their readiness to change lifestyle behaviors like quitting smoking or exercising regularly. This interface enables clinicians to quickly but reliably assess a patient’s readiness to change those behaviors and to provide very brief immediate tailored feedback on the single most important behavior change strategy the patient can use to make progress on that behavior. In short, the tool allows the clinician to be an expert in behavior change without extensive training.”
