Collection of Patient Reported Outcome Measures Using Short Messaging Service

Information and communication technology may improve clinical care and research. The advent of mobile technology offers many new possibilities. We present the development and pilot testing of a system that collects patient reported outcome measures using mobile phones in the field of rheumatological rehabilitation. Ensuring that the system was usable by the maximum number of patients resulted in choosing text messages for reporting from the patients over newer technology like mobile apps. The system was run in a successful pilot study where participants answered both with text messages and pen and paper. The text message reporting was more complete than the pen and paper method. A focus group and a survey showed that participants preferred using text messages to pen and paper. We detail our design deci-sions and why we feel that for our purposes within the domain of rheumatology, text messages provide the best suited overall solution given their simplicity, ubiquity in Norwegian society, and the fact that no new hardware or software is required for the respondent. The system is currently being used in a yearlong clinical study.