TY  - JOUR
AU  - Henderson, Macey L
AU  - Thomas, Alvin G
AU  - Eno, Ann K
AU  - Waldram, Madeleine M
AU  - Bannon, Jaclyn
AU  - Massie, Allan B
AU  - Levan, Michael A
AU  - Segev, Dorry L
AU  - Bingaman, Adam W
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019/01/15
TI  - The Impact of the mKidney mHealth System on Live Donor Follow-Up Compliance: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
JO  - JMIR Res Protoc
SP  - e11000
VL  - 8
IS  - 1
KW  - app
KW  - follow-up
KW  - health care
KW  - kidney transplantation
KW  - mHealth
KW  - mobile phone
KW  - randomized controlled trial
KW  - protocol
AB  - Background: Every year, more than 5500 healthy people in the United States donate a kidney for the medical benefit of another person. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) requires transplant hospitals to monitor living kidney donors (LKDs) for 2 years postdonation. However, the majority (115/202, 57%) of transplant hospitals in the United States continue to fail to meet nationally mandated requirements for LKD follow-up. A novel method for collecting LKD follow-up is needed to ease both the transplant hospital-level and patient-level burden. We built mKidney—a mobile health (mHealth) system designed specifically to facilitate the collection and reporting of OPTN-required LKD follow-up data. The mKidney mobile app was developed on the basis of input elicited from LKDs, transplant providers, and thought leaders. Objective: The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of the mKidney smartphone app on LKD follow-up rates. Methods: We will conduct a two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) with LKDs who undergo LKD transplantation at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Eligible participants will be recruited in-person by a study team member at their 1-week postdonation clinical visit and randomly assigned to the intervention or control arm (1:1). Participants in the intervention arm will receive the mHealth intervention (mKidney), and participants in the control arm will receive the current standard of follow-up care. Our primary outcome will be policy-defined complete (all components addressed) and timely (60 days before or after the expected visit date) submission of LKD follow-up data at required 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year visits. Our secondary outcome will be hospital-level compliance with OPTN reporting requirements at each visit. Data analysis will follow the intention-to-treat principle. Additionally, we will collect quantitative and qualitative process data regarding the implementation of the mKidney system. Results: We began recruitment for this RCT in May 2018. We plan to enroll 400 LKDs over 2 years and follow participants for the 2-year mandated follow-up period. Conclusions: This pilot RCT will evaluate the impact of the mKidney system on rates of LKD and hospital compliance with OPTN-mandated LKD follow-up at a large LKD transplant hospital. It will provide valuable information on strategies for implementing such a system in a clinical setting and inform effect sizes for future RCT sample size calculations. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/11000 
SN  - 1929-0748
UR  - http://www.researchprotocols.org/2019/1/e11000/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/11000
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30664485
DO  - 10.2196/11000
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/11000
ER  -