A Newly Developed Application To Support Busy Clinicians In Providing Diagnostic-specific Physical Activity And Healthy Lifestyle Recommendations

PURPOSE: Physical inactivity and poor diet led to an epidemic of preventable chronic diseases; due to shortage of primary care physicians, this led to over-reliance on non-urgent Emergency Department visits causing significant economic burden estimated at $32 billion annually. Additionally, nearly 34% of all patients discharged are readmitted within 90 days. Moreover, 79% of readmissions are preventable and estimated at $28 billion annually. Nevertheless, a physically active lifestyle is correlated with reduced prevalence of chronic diseases and reduced hospital admissions. An efficient strategy to promote physical activity may reduce the burden on healthcare services and related costs. METHODS: We created an application to assist clinicians in providing diagnosis-specific lifestyle recommendations. It includes (1) physical activity guidelines designed to inspire movement; (2) healthy eating strategies with a grocery list; and (3) coaching section for developing healthy behaviors; the recommendations are delivered in either (a) single page summary or (b) more comprehensive detailed information; all written in a coaching format to support patients maintain healthy behaviors. RESULTS: This application was designed to allow clinicians simple and rapid access to prepared recommendations for a healthy and active lifestyle tailored to the patient’s precise medical conditions. The clinician easily search the app for a specific diagnosis, for example “hypertension”; The application will then present explicit physical activity guidelines and dietary recommendations which are precise to the medical diagnosis. The recommendations are designed in simple terms and ready to print, for direct distribution from the clinician to the patient. CONCLUSIONS: The application is expected to promote implementation of physical activity health recommendations. Designed for busy clinicians, the app provides rapid and simple access to prepared health recommendations, ready to use. It requires minimal effort by the clinician in providing detailed and diagnostic-specific health recommendations. Efficient promotion of health recommendations is expected to modify the development, management, and even reversal of preventable chronic diseases, thus reducing use of healthcare resources and related costs.