Mobile Health and Behavioral Change

Dr. C. Jason Wang’s laboratory, Health Analytics, Behavioral Interventions, and Technology (HABIT)  is leading the creation of a choice architecture called the Healthy Ideas Exchange to study behavioral change. “Patient compliance has become the best documented, but least understood, health behavior,” and requires innovative thinking. This architecture will be implemented using Smart technology (e.g. phones and tablets). Today, 82% of adults have a mobile device; 38% of those with mobile devices use them to go online, and 34% of adults play games on their cell phones. These numbers are higher for minorities than Whites. In the Exchange, users will also be exposed to nudges, which are aspects of the choice architecture that alter people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. In the short-term, the study team will identify the hooks and nudges that are important for motivating different patient populations (e.g., by age, race, socio-economic status, resident location), and  monitor how long individuals stay engaged. For the long-term outcomes, we will be looking at cost-savings to the healthcare system and the diffusion of this innovation.