Bormann NL, Kalata A, Arndt S, Oesterle TS. Digital Therapeutic Content for Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Development and Evaluation Study. JMIR Form Res. 2026;10:e87453. doi:10.2196/87453
This early report describes the development and evaluation of 14 therapeutic modules for a mobile health (mHealth) app designed to support substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. The modules were adapted from Mayo Clinic educational materials originally developed by a board-certified addiction psychiatrist and a doctoral-level education specialist. An interdisciplinary team (n=4) reformatted the content for smartphones over six months by shortening sentences, adding subheadings, simplifying language to approximately a fifth-grade reading level, and using everyday language. The team also added specific, feasible actions to each module based on the clinical expertise and recovery experiences of licensed alcohol and drug counselors (LADCs). Drafts were reviewed collaboratively and revised until consensus was reached. Across all modules, mean understandability scores were 87.2% (SD 4.8%; range 81.4%‐96.9%), while mean actionability scores were 75.1% (SD 12.3%; range 57.1%‐95.0%). These results exceeded the recommended benchmarks of the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for printable materials, with scores greater than 70% for both measures. The Introduction module had scores of 94% for understandability and 95% for actionability. Self-Esteem and Self-Talk scored 96.9% for understandability and 85% for actionability. Four modules had actionability scores below 70%, ranging from 57.1% to 60.7%. Overall, the findings support an iterative, interdisciplinary approach that combines clinical SUD expertise, recovery experience, and health care communication knowledge. However, actionability remained weaker than understandability, with 35.7% (5/14) of modules below the acceptable threshold. Limitations included the small, purposively recruited LADCs and potential score inflation because the same individuals helped create and evaluate the materials.