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Health Care Providers’ Perspectives on a Weekly Text-Messaging Intervention to Engage HIV-Positive Persons in Care (WelTel BC1)

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Abstract

Though evidence shows that Mobile health (mHealth) interventions can improve adherence and viral load in HIV-positive persons, few have studied the health care providers’ (HCP) perspective. We conducted a prospective mixed methods pilot study using the WelTel intervention wherein HIV-positive participants (n = 25) received weekly interactive text messages for 6 months. Text message response rate and topic data were collected to illustrate the HCP experience. The aim of this study is to explore intervention acceptability and feasibility from the HCP perspective through a baseline focus group and end of study interviews with HCP impacted by the intervention. Interview data were thematically coded using the Technology Acceptance Model. HCPs identified that the WelTel intervention engaged patients in building relationships, while organizing and streamlining existing mHealth efforts and dealing with privacy issues. HCPs recognized that although workload would augment initially, intervention benefits were many, and went beyond simply improving HIV viral load.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all of the patients and the health care workers who participated in this study for their valuable input. We would like to thank Juanita Maginley for her helpful input into the study. Funding was provided for this study by unrestricted grants from Bristol Myers Squibb and the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Melanie C. M. Murray, Mia L. van der Kop, Neora Pick & Richard Lester

  2. Oak Tree Clinic, British Columbia Women’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Melanie C. M. Murray, Sara O’Shaughnessy, Rebecca Graham, Evelyn J. Maan, Karen Friesen, Neora Pick & Deborah Money

  3. Women’s Health Research Institute, British Columbia Women’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada

    Melanie C. M. Murray, Arianne Albert, Neora Pick & Deborah Money

  4. British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Kirsten Smillie, Natasha Van Borek, Sarah Levine, Gina Ogilvie & Richard Lester

  5. School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Natasha Van Borek

  6. Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Mia L. van der Kop

  7. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Deborah Money

Authors
  1. Melanie C. M. Murray
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  2. Sara O’Shaughnessy
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  11. Neora Pick
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  12. Gina Ogilvie
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  13. Deborah Money
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  14. Richard Lester
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the WelTel BC1 Study Team

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Correspondence to Melanie C. M. Murray.

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Murray, M.C.M., O’Shaughnessy, S., Smillie, K. et al. Health Care Providers’ Perspectives on a Weekly Text-Messaging Intervention to Engage HIV-Positive Persons in Care (WelTel BC1). AIDS Behav 19, 1875–1887 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-015-1151-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-015-1151-6

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