Participants
Patients admitted to medicine services at two hospitals at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia (Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center) were identified as potential participants using the electronic health record (EPIC) and approached in the hospital by the study team.Patients were eligible for the trial if they were 18 years or older, had a smartphone compatible with the Withings HealthMate smartphone application, had no current medical condition which prohibited them from ambulating or plan for a medical procedure over the next 6 months that would prohibit them from ambulating, planned to be discharged to home, able to speak and read English, and able to provide informed consent. Patients were excluded if pregnant, already participating in another physical activity study or if they did not reside in the States of Pennsylvania or New Jersey.Interested patients used a computer from the study team to create an account on the Way to Health technology platform, provide informed consent, and selected whether to receive study communications by text message, email, interactive voice recording, or a combination. Patients then completed series of survey assessments including baseline information and validated questionnaires.