TY - JOUR
T1 - The Coags uncomplicated app
T2 - Fulfilling educational gaps around diagnosis and laboratory testing of coagulation disorders
AU - Kessler, Craig
AU - Peerschke, Ellinor I.
AU - Chitlur, Meera B.
AU - Kulkarni, Roshni
AU - Holot, Natalia
AU - Cooper, David L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The quantitative survey was conducted by Boyd Associates Inc, Honey Brook, PA, USA, with financial support provided by Novo Nordisk Inc. Writing assistance was provided by Anna Abt, PhD, of ETHOS Health Communications in Yardley, PA, USA, and was supported financially by Novo Nordisk Inc, Plainsboro, NJ, USA, in compliance with International Good Publication Practice guidelines.
Funding Information:
CMK has served on advisory boards for Baxalta, Bayer, Biogen, Genentech, Grifols, Novo Nordisk Inc, Octapharma, and Pfizer, and has received grant or research support from Bayer, Baxter, Novo Nordisk Inc, and Octapharma. EP’s institution has received funding from the NIH NCI Cancer Center Support Grant P30 CA008748. MC is a paid consultant for Novo Nordisk Inc, and has received honoraria from Baxter, Bayer, Biogen Idec, and Pfizer. RK has received grant or research support from Baxter, Bayer, Biogen, Novo Nordisk Inc, and Octapharma and has served as a consultant for Baxter, Bayer, Biogen, BPL, Kedrion, Novo Nordisk Inc, and Pfizer. NH and DC are employees of Novo Nordisk Inc.
Publisher Copyright:
© Craig Kessler, Ellinor I Peerschke, Meera B Chitlur, Roshni Kulkarni, Natalia Holot, David L Cooper. Originally published in JMIR Medical Education (http://mededu.jmir.org), 18.04.2017. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Medical Education, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mededu.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Background: Patients with coagulation disorders may present to a variety of physician specialties; however, accurate and efficient diagnosis can be challenging for physicians not specialized in hematology, due to identified gaps in knowledge around appropriate laboratory assays and interpretation of test results. Coags Uncomplicated was developed to fill this unmet educational need by increasing practical knowledge of coagulation disorders among nonexpert physicians and other health care professionals (HCPs) in a point-of-care (POC) setting. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess patterns of use of the mobile app Coags Uncomplicated, a tool designed to support education regarding accurate and efficient diagnosis of bleeding disorders. Methods: App metrics were obtained by tracking registered user data. Additionally, a survey was distributed to registered users, to assess circumstances and frequency of use. Results: The most common specialties of 7596 registered US users were hematology-oncology (n=1534, 20.19%), hematology (n=1014, 13.35%), and emergency medicine (n=1222, 16.09%); most identified as physicians (n=4082, 53.74%). Specialties accounting for the greatest numbers of screen views were hematology-oncology (99,390 views), hematology (47,808 views), emergency medicine (23,121 views), and internal medicine (22,586 views). The most common diagnostic endpoints reached were disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC; 2713 times), liver disease effect (2108 times), and vitamin K deficiency (1584 times). Of 3424 users asked to take the survey, 262 responded (7.65%); most were physicians in direct clinical care (71%) and specialized in hematology-oncology (39%) or emergency medicine (21%). Most frequent use was reported by hematologists (69%, ≥6 times) and hematologists-oncologists (38%, ≥6 times). Most physicians (89.2%) reported using the app for patient-case-related education around appropriate use of laboratory tests in diagnostic evaluation. Physicians rated Lab Value Analyzer (mean 4.43) and Lab Test Algorithm (mean 4.46) tools highly on a 5-point “how helpful” scale and were likely to recommend the app to colleagues. Conclusions: App use among physicians and other HCPs is consistent with value as a POC educational tool, which may facilitate differential diagnoses and appropriate early consultation with hematologists.
AB - Background: Patients with coagulation disorders may present to a variety of physician specialties; however, accurate and efficient diagnosis can be challenging for physicians not specialized in hematology, due to identified gaps in knowledge around appropriate laboratory assays and interpretation of test results. Coags Uncomplicated was developed to fill this unmet educational need by increasing practical knowledge of coagulation disorders among nonexpert physicians and other health care professionals (HCPs) in a point-of-care (POC) setting. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess patterns of use of the mobile app Coags Uncomplicated, a tool designed to support education regarding accurate and efficient diagnosis of bleeding disorders. Methods: App metrics were obtained by tracking registered user data. Additionally, a survey was distributed to registered users, to assess circumstances and frequency of use. Results: The most common specialties of 7596 registered US users were hematology-oncology (n=1534, 20.19%), hematology (n=1014, 13.35%), and emergency medicine (n=1222, 16.09%); most identified as physicians (n=4082, 53.74%). Specialties accounting for the greatest numbers of screen views were hematology-oncology (99,390 views), hematology (47,808 views), emergency medicine (23,121 views), and internal medicine (22,586 views). The most common diagnostic endpoints reached were disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC; 2713 times), liver disease effect (2108 times), and vitamin K deficiency (1584 times). Of 3424 users asked to take the survey, 262 responded (7.65%); most were physicians in direct clinical care (71%) and specialized in hematology-oncology (39%) or emergency medicine (21%). Most frequent use was reported by hematologists (69%, ≥6 times) and hematologists-oncologists (38%, ≥6 times). Most physicians (89.2%) reported using the app for patient-case-related education around appropriate use of laboratory tests in diagnostic evaluation. Physicians rated Lab Value Analyzer (mean 4.43) and Lab Test Algorithm (mean 4.46) tools highly on a 5-point “how helpful” scale and were likely to recommend the app to colleagues. Conclusions: App use among physicians and other HCPs is consistent with value as a POC educational tool, which may facilitate differential diagnoses and appropriate early consultation with hematologists.
KW - Blood coagulation disorders
KW - Diagnosis
KW - Differential diagnosis
KW - Hematology
KW - Smartphone
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102340253&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2196/mededu.6858
DO - 10.2196/mededu.6858
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102340253
SN - 2369-3762
VL - 3
JO - JMIR Medical Education
JF - JMIR Medical Education
IS - 1
M1 - e6
ER -