Home-Monitoring Application for Children With Medical Complexity: A Feasibility Trial

Area of Science:

• Pediatric healthcare technology
• Digital health interventions
• Home-based patient monitoring

Background:

• Children with medical complexity (CMC) often require frequent hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits.
• Mobile applications offer a potential solution for supporting home monitoring and reducing healthcare utilization for CMC.
• Previous implementations of such apps for CMC have been limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of the MyChildCMC app for home monitoring of CMC.
• To evaluate the app's ability to detect early signs of health deterioration.
• To determine the preliminary impact of the app on healthcare utilization and parent satisfaction.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving parents of CMC (aged 1-21 years) post-hospital discharge.
• Participants were assigned to either the MyChildCMC app group or usual care for 3 months.
• Data collected included vital signs, symptoms, enrollment, retention, engagement, quality of life, parent satisfaction, and healthcare admissions.

Main Results:

• The MyChildCMC app achieved an 80.6% enrollment rate, with 74% retention at 3 months.
• Run-chart shifts in vital signs frequently preceded hospital admissions, indicating early detection potential.
• The MyChildCMC group showed significantly improved parent satisfaction and a reduction in hospital days compared to the control group.

Conclusions:

• The MyChildCMC app is a feasible tool for home monitoring of CMC.
• The app shows potential for early detection of health deteriorations, possibly preventing ED visits and hospitalizations.
• Further research with larger studies is recommended to confirm the app's impact and long-term sustainability.