Improving Access to Fertility Care and Empowerment of Linguistic Minority Patients with Infertility Through a Mobile App

The current project involves the evaluation of a mobile app developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and health professionals to provide targeted bilingual informational and social support resources to patients undergoing fertility treatments in Montreal. The app content will be available in both French and English and using language that aims to be accessible to everyone with fertility concerns. The educational component will include evidence-based information on a variety of fertility-related topics and presented in a way that is easy to understand and accessible to people with differing eHealth literacy levels. Specific sections will be devoted to information about infertility diagnoses, treatment options, risks to fertility, reproductive health promotion as well as how to navigate through treatments and tips on how to cope with infertility. The social support component will consist of discussion boards and a peer support network to help connect patients with others who can understand the difficulty of their situation. The app is hypothesized to have a beneficial impact on patients’ well-being (stress, anxiety and depression), perceived empowerment, quality of life, and eHealth literacy.

The principal objective of my research project is to investigate the effectiveness of a patient-centered mobile health (mHealth) intervention that delivers informational and emotional support in improving patient empowerment in infertile patients facing language barriers in Montreal.