Is There a Digital Divide in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)? (eCRIC)

Individuals with CKD are at risk for adverse safety events, yet little is known regarding the utility of health information technology (IT) educational tools to reduce these events. The results of this project will be invaluable in gaining a better understanding of the limitations and potential for use of a patient-centered mHealth patient safety educational intervention in high-risk individuals with CKD.

The study will evaluate the perceived eHealth literacy of patients with CKD and its relation to medication errors in the CRIC cohort. The hypothesis is that a novel mHealth-based patient safety curriculum designed to address a wide-range of e-literacy will be effective in attenuating the identified Digital Divide adversely affecting many CKD patients, and will reduce adverse safety events common in this population.

Study Aims:

1. Examine the association between surveyed perceived e-literacy and medication errors in individuals with CKD

   Hypothesis 1: Medication error rates will be higher among CRIC participants with low eHealth literacy.

2. Assess the acceptance and feasibility of a novel mHealth-based patient safety curriculum to improve patient safety risk knowledge among individuals with CKD and determine its efficacy in increasing patient safety risk awareness.

Hypothesis 2a: A low literacy mHealth patient safety curriculum will improve patient safety risk awareness among high risk individuals with CKD.

Hypothesis 2b: Medication error rates will be higher among CRIC participants with low patient safety risk awareness.