Smartphone Data in Rheumatoid Arthritis - What Do Rheumatologists Want?

Objective: To create a relevant and clinically informative visualization of passively collected patient mobility data from smartphones of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients for rheumatologists.

Methods: (1) Pilot analysis of smartphone mobility data in RA; (2) Assessment of rheumatologists' needs for patient data through semi-structured interviews; and (3) Evaluation of the visual format of the RA data using scenario-based usability methods.

Results: We created a color-scale mobility index superimposed on a calendar to summarize the passive mobility measures from the smartphone that the rheumatologists confirmed would be clinically relevant.

Conclusion: This assessment of clinician data needs and preferences demonstrates the potential value of passively collected smartphone data to resolve an important data question in RA. Efforts such as these are necessary to ensure that any smartphone data that patients share with their doctors will not exacerbate clinician information overload, but actually facilitate clinical decisions.