Design and implementation of a brief digital mindfulness and compassion training app for health care professionals: cluster randomized controlled trial

Background: Several studies show that intense work schedules make health
care professionals particularly vulnerable to emotional
exhaustion and burnout. Objective: In this scenario, promoting
self-compassion and mindfulness may be beneficial for well-being. Notably,
scalable, digital app–based methods may have the potential to
enhance self-compassion and mindfulness in health care professionals.
Methods: In this study, we designed and implemented a scalable, digital
app–based, brief mindfulness and compassion training program
called “WellMind” for health care professionals. A total of 22 adult
participants completed up to 60 sessions of WellMind training,
5-10 minutes in duration each, over 3 months. Participants completed
behavioral assessments measuring self-compassion and mindfulness
at baseline (preintervention), 3 months (postintervention), and 6 months
(follow-up). In order to control for practice effects on the
repeat assessments and calculate effect sizes, we also studied a
no-contact control group of 21 health care professionals who only
completed the repeated assessments but were not provided any training.
Additionally, we evaluated preand postintervention neural
activity in core brain networks using electroencephalography source
imaging as an objectiveneurophysiological training outcome. Results:
Findings showed a post- versus preintervention increase in self-compassion
(Cohen d=0.57; P=.007) and state-mindfulness (d=0.52; P=.02) only
in the WellMind training group, with improvements in self-compassion
sustained at follow-up (d=0.8; P=.01). Additionally, WellMind
training durations correlated with the magnitude of improvement in
self-compassion across human participants (ρ=0.52; P=.01).
Training-related neurophysiological results revealed plasticity specific
to the default mode network (DMN) that is implicated in
mind-wandering and rumination, with DMN network suppression selectively
observed at the postintervention time point in the WellMind group
(d=–0.87; P=.03). We also found that improvement in
self-compassion was directly related to the extent of DMN
suppression (ρ=–0.368; P=.04). Conclusions: Overall, promising behavioral
and neurophysiological findings from this first study demonstrate the
benefits of brief digital mindfulness and compassion training for
health care professionals and compel the scale-up of the digital
intervention.