Table 3.

Preliminary recommendations for healthcare professionals (HCPs) and researchers when providing ESM-based feedback based on experts’ input.

•Personalize the feedback as much as possible, as not every person will find the same information interesting or relevant.

•If possible, prioritize topics of relevance to the patient/HCPs.

•Generate automated scripts to reduce burden for researchers/HCPs when processing information for feedback.

•Discuss feedback face-to-face and take adequate time to interpret the data together.

•Explore beforehand what HCPs and patients expect from the feedback to prevent misunderstandings or disappointment.

•Focus the feedback on a few main areas of interest.

•Engage patients in the feedback sessions by, for instance, asking questions and encouraging them to share their thoughts to create a collaborative care process.

•Ideally, feedback sessions take place during or directly after the self-monitoring (ESM data collection) period and are frequent (i.e., every or every other week); this might also enhance motivation for ongoing self-monitoring.

•Avoid causal interpretations of the data or viewing information without context.

•Explain graphs and data (e.g., What is a Mean?), keep feedback as simple as possible to improve understandability for patients, and ensure patients grasp the core message.

•Provide a feedback report including a summary and graphs; potentially share the report with treating HCPs.

•Keep in mind: ESM is just a tool and might not be able to replace face-to-face contact and counselling, particularly for patients who are struggling with self-management.

Note: These recommendations are based on a reflections from researchers with extensive ESM (n = 8, average: 10 years of working with ESM), but do not represent a complete consensus list.