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Best Practices of Mobile Health in Clinical Care: The Development and Evaluation of a Competency-Based Provider Training Program

This article describes the development and evaluation of a training program for behavioral health providers on the integration of mobile health applications (health apps) in clinical care. The purpose was to train military and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) providers in the use and current research of various behavioral health apps. The training focused on 5 core competencies: gaining knowledge on the evidence base for using mobile apps in behavioral health practice, effective integration of mobile technologies into traditional treatment settings, security and privacy issues involved with digital data, ethical issues, and cultural considerations. During a 3-year span (October 2014–September 2017), the training program delivered 20 one-day workshops at 15 military or VA locations, reaching 760 Department of Defense and VA clinicians (psychologists, social workers, physicians, and nurses) on best practices for health apps in clinical care. Prior to the training, less than half of the providers who attended the workshop (41.1%) reported that they were using health apps during treatment. Just following the training, 93.7% of the trainees indicated their intent to use health apps during patient care. At the 3-month posttraining interval, provider-reported use of health apps in treatment was 90.8%. Results demonstrated the impact of a mobile apps provider training program to deliver a relevant, feasible, and impactful approach to educating providers regarding mobile health best practices. Data collected also provided valuable insight into military provider technology use over a 3-year period.