# HealthyMe/MiSalud Smartphone Application: Identifying Mechanisms to Engage African Americans and Hispanics in Personal Health Libraries

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · 2020 · $336,038

## Abstract

Project Abstract
African American and Hispanic populations are less likely to access health and medical information through
common sources/channels compared to their White counterparts. Although this information can help prevent
high-prevalence diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, factors such as trust in certain sources (e.g.
doctors), health literacy levels, or cultural and language preferences are known barriers to African
Americans’ and Hispanics’ active health information seeking. Because smartphones are a ubiquitous
consumer device among all races and ethnicities, the project goal is to refine and test how
HealthyMe/MiSalud, an English/Spanish smartphone application (app) can support personal health
libraries that bridge the gap between available but under-used health information and the people who need it.
The project aims to identify how smartphone apps, data science methods, and health literacy techniques can
motivate English-speaking African Americans and bilingual/Spanish-speaking Hispanics to assemble and use
prevention-focused personal health libraries. Using a prototype app based on healthfinder.gov, the team will
use participatory design methods to expand and refine the prototype with additional information sources,
functions, and an algorithm that continually personalizes information. The app will allow users to assemble
digital personal health libraries that match their health information preferences and needs. This project has
three specific aims to achieve the goal of refining and testing an English and Spanish smartphone app
for personalized preventive health libraries. Aim 1: Understand the intended users of a prevention-focused
app and involve them in participatory design to refine the prototype app. Aim 2: Refine the prototype app so it
is testable with intended users and consistent with published app requirements. Aim 3: Develop and assess
the effectiveness of the application’s inference engine (personalized recommendation algorithms), using user
interactions. A participatory design approach and select principles of community-based participatory research
(CBPR) will provide direct, continuous engagement with community members during the process to develop,
design, implement, and evaluate the proposed app. This project creates significant public health benefit
because the app will provide new knowledge about how to use technology and data science techniques
to engage African American and Hispanic populations in increased information seeking for reliable,
actionable prevention information they would be unlikely to find and use otherwise. After final refinements, the
app will be available in online stores for free downloads.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9929637
- **Project number:** 5R01LM013039-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
- **Principal Investigator:** CYNTHIA E BAUR
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $336,038
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-18 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9929637

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9929637, HealthyMe/MiSalud Smartphone Application: Identifying Mechanisms to Engage African Americans and Hispanics in Personal Health Libraries (5R01LM013039-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9929637. Licensed CC0.

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