Exercise and symptom monitoring with a mobile device

Mobile PDA/phone devices allow remote monitoring of clinical and behavioral parameters. However, passively expecting patients to use these devices may lead to low response rates. Our study, aimed at collecting exercise and symptom data from an older clinical population of patients with COPD, employed push technology principles by delivering automated prompts to patients in an effort to increase response rates. We found acceptable response rates with subjects preferring to have prompts delivered to coincide with their exercise activity though usability issues had adverse effects on response rates and time.