Building Mobile Technologies to Reduce Health Disparities in Congenital Heart Disease

NIH RePORTER · NIH · K23 · $63,056 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Project Summary The growing congenital heart disease adolescent survivor population faces two major health disparities in care: (1) poor care transition (an age and developmentally appropriate process, addressing the medical, psychosocial and educational/vocational aspects of care) from child-centered to adult-centered healthcare; and (2) lack of appropriate transfer of care (the point at which an adult cardiac provider assumes the medical care of a CHD patient). The transition period is a vulnerable time for adolescents with CHD, and many drop-out from active health care. Dropping out leads to poor health outcomes, and does not allow for appropriate transfer to adult care. The newly validated SMART (Socio-ecological Model of Adolescent & young adult Readiness for Transition) model has the potential to improve this process, by targeting modifiable variables for intervention in the transition and transfer process through assessments of five parameters: adolescent socio-demographics, disease characteristics and knowledge, skills/self-efficacy, relationships and psychosocial functioning. Using SMART, our research will engage CHD adolescents and promote transition and transfer using a modality that universally defines their generation: mobile technology. The overall objective of this proposal is to identify transition needs for CHD adolescents, facilitate transfer of care, and adapt SMART for these needs by developing and piloting an interactive e-health (mobile based) platform that will promote the key knowledge and skills that adolescents need to successfully transition and transfer to adult care. The mobile-based platform will target modifiable variables to improve transition and transfer of care for CHD adolescents.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10394021
Project number
3K23HL127164-05S1
Recipient
BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Principal Investigator
Keila Natilde Lopez
Activity code
K23
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2021
Award amount
$63,056
Award type
3
Project period
2016-09-01 → 2022-08-31