Photo courtesy of Lyft
In 2016, Sherri Snelling acting as a Thought Leadership consultant for the Dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, secured a $1.5 million grant from the AARP Foundation and UnitedHealthcare to fund a pilot study on ridesharing among Keck Medicine of USC’s older medical patient population.
The clinical study was spearheaded by Dr. Leslie Saxon and the experts at her academic digital health think tank, the USC Center for Body Computing. The study was originally devised to increase patient follow-up appointments since 4.5 million patients nationwide typically miss these important doctor visits resulting in readmissions, higher medical costs and ultimately poorer quality health outcomes.
In addition, the research team advised adding a social isolation component to the study acknowledging that lack of access to affordable and on demand transportation often keeps seniors isolated at home which can severely impact the senior’s physical and emotional health.
Sherri’s role was as gerontological and communications advisor participating in the training of rideshare participants, reviewing assessment tools, conducting qualitative interviews with several participants and their family caregivers that were also used in digital storytelling (see video interviews below), strategizing with the communications team on the publication of the study results.
The study was the first of its kind to analyze the social isolation of hospital patients in a ridesharing study.
Results
The results of the study published in The Journal of mHealth showed that one-third of the free rides were used for medical appointments however 69 percent of rides were for fitness, social and leisure activities. Many reported they engaged more in social events because of the free access to the on demand transportation. And, 92 percent of those in the study self-reported their quality of life improved. The key to success in having the seniors engage in the ridesharing was the training provided on the smartphone app to hail the rides. While a landline concierge option was also part of the program, most of the older patients — including a few study participants in their 90s – were eager to download the app and try it out.
Following are some of the preliminary results presented prior to publication at the USC Center for Body Computing Global Digital Health Conference:
USC AARP Foundation Lyft Ridesharing Study Preliminary Results Final 9.28.18
Patient Testimonials
During the study’s pilot two participants were asked to be featured as part of the study’s digital storytelling project. As the project lead on these qualitative interviews and video stories, Sherri worked with AARP Foundation’s PR team as the interviewer and editor for the video storytelling of Connie Torres and Bob Robles who agreed to share their ridesharing experience. These videos were featured in AARP Foundation’s Connect2Affect social media campaign with each video getting more than 400,000 views in the first few days! Check out their video stories here:
News Coverage
The ridesharing study received a lot of attention from news media. Here are some of the highlights:
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