Patients using an app were more than twice as likely to disclose sensitive information such as domestic violence, depression and fall risk than they were with verbal screenings, according to a study published March 8 in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers studied the use of mPath, a tablet-based app created at Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest School of Medicine. They studied the app's use at six primary care practices among 23,026 adult patients.
The app is accessed on a tablet given to patients when they check in. It includes screening questions for domestic violence, depression and fall risk instead of having nurses verbally ask those questions, and it transmits the responses into the EHR.
After the app was launched in the practices, more than twice as many patients screened positive. The authors said the results were aligned with prior studies showing patients feel tablet-based screening questions offer more privacy than face-to-face questions.