PONE-D-22-27667Digital health for chronic disease management: An exploratory method to investigating technology adoption potentialPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Vasulelos Nittas, 

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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Both reviewers have suggested major revisions to the manuscript. In addition to the comments made,

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Chidozie Emmanuel Mbada, PhD.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Dear author(s),

This manuscript is quite novel and interest to readership on digital health and Telehealth for patients with MS.

The strengths of this paper include a large cohort in the case study, results with clear breakdowns of high, low, and average MS users; and interesting figures with results. However, the paper requires key restructuring including introduction, more clarity of figure description, and narrative use of subheaders.

For example, the the introduction of the paper should consider - Rogers's diffusion of innovation as a starting point, then tech use in the digital age, then specific to patients with MS, and then the purpose of this case study.

I hope the author(s) would consider key points to this review and edit appropriately.

Thank you for this submission and opportunity to review this paper.

Reviewer #2: Digital health for chronic disease management: An exploratory method to investigating technology adoption potential

The study examined a low resource approach of capturing and clustering exposure and adoption of technology among patients with MS. The study has the possibility for a better characterization of prospective user populations and ultimately, future patient-facing technologies for broader audience.

However, the following concerns need to be addressed:

1. Numbering of in-text citation not clear, references numbering were not arranged in ascending order of citation . Authors should do necessary corrections following journals instructions

2. In line 136 authors should specify what the information from Swiss MS Registry (SMSR) was utilized for

3. In line 139; what is “the participation” referring to, is it your study or description of SMSR?

4. Under Materials and Methods subheading, what is the research design adopted in this study? Are there any other criteria for inclusion of participants in this study apart from age? Please provide details

5. In lines 141 to 146, authors should indicate specific duration of the longitudinal survey “semi-annual surveys” for how many years?

6. The extensive baseline survey is noted to contain information from short baseline survey. Please give more information on why this is needed in lines 146 to 148

7. Was the informed consent provided by participants written or oral? Line 149

8. Authors should provide a statement to clarify whether the SMSR survey released in October 2020 for capturing participants’ experiences during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was part of this study or an existing survey in the registry. Lines 152 to 153

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PLOS One Reviewrs comments.docx

Digital health for chronic disease management: An exploratory method to investigating technology adoption potential

PONE-D-22-27667R1

Dear Dr. Nittas,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Chidozie Emmanuel Mbada, PhD.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: THE AUTHORS HAVE ADDRESSED COMMENTS RAISED SATISFACRORILY. REVISIONS HAVE BEEN MADE TO THE MANUSCRIPT AND INDICATED APPROPRIATELY

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: Yes: Marufat Oluyemisi Odetunde Ph.D

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