What guides the product
Habit of Care is designed to make evidence-informed care practices easier to deliver, organize, and review.
What the research supports—and how it informs care.
Habit of Care brings established care practices into one connected experience: structured between-session work, routine progress measurement, timely feedback, and provider-guided digital support. Research on these practices provides a practical foundation for thoughtful product design and evaluation.
Product evidence status
Evidence-informed by design.
Published findings about psychotherapy homework, measurement-based care, and blended treatment guide Habit of Care’s approach. Product evaluation tracks the experience and outcomes of Habit of Care directly.
How impact is evaluated
Product evaluation follows its own measures for efficacy, safety, cost savings, and clinical outcomes.
Building the evidence
Prospective product studies, transparent methods, predefined outcomes, appropriate comparison groups, and independent review.
Evidence pillar 01
Between-session practice and therapy homework.
An updated meta-analysis covering 23 studies and more than 2,000 participants found a small-to-moderate association between greater homework compliance and better therapy outcomes. The authors reported a correlation of r = .27.
Homework quality, therapeutic fit, measurement method, and client context all help shape meaningful progress.
Design implication
Assignments are most useful when they are purposeful, understandable, feasible, and connected to the treatment direction. Completion data enrich conversation and clinical interpretation.
Research continues to evolve
A 2016 Cochrane review found mixed results for routine patient-reported outcome monitoring in the included studies. Later reviews have reported small average effects and stronger effects when feedback and clinical-support conditions are present. Implementation quality is an important part of the approach.
Evidence pillar 02
Routine measurement and progress feedback.
A 2021 multilevel meta-analysis covering 58 studies and 21,699 participants found a small favorable effect of progress feedback on symptom reduction (d = .15) and a small favorable effect on dropout. A 2023 review of 11 meta-analyses likewise characterized average effects as modest and emphasized feedback specificity, graphs, alerts, and clinical support tools.
Measurement supports collaborative care by bringing meaningful progress signals into context-rich conversations.
Evidence pillar 03
Digital support within human care.
A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of blended psychological therapy described 29 adult studies combining digital and face-to-face components. The authors found blended approaches feasible, with favorable findings for depression and varied results for anxiety.
A separate 2020 systematic review found that smartphones, tablets, and related technologies can support repeated assessment and feedback in face-to-face psychotherapy. Thoughtful implementation helps teams realize that potential.
Design implication
Digital tools can strengthen the care relationship when they explain their purpose, minimize burden, and keep professional judgment in the loop. Their value comes from a thoughtful fit with the care experience.
Measurement framework
Outcomes need definitions—and context.
A clear product evaluation brings together engagement, workflow, clinical process, safety, and patient-reported outcomes.
Engagement
Invitation acceptance, active use, assignment completion, repeat participation, and attrition—reported with clear denominators and time windows.
Workflow
Time to assign, review burden, preparation time, notification volume, and provider-reported usability.
Clinical process
Use of validated measures, treatment-plan adjustments, collaborative review, and care continuity.
Patient-reported outcomes
Change on appropriate validated measures with baseline, follow-up, missingness, and clinically meaningful thresholds defined in advance.
Experience
Client understanding, perceived burden, therapeutic fit, accessibility, trust, and provider satisfaction.
Safety
Safety monitoring, privacy protections, appropriate-response review, and predefined care-quality signals.
Selected sources
Follow the evidence.
Selection favors systematic reviews and meta-analyses directly related to between-session work, measurement, feedback, and blended care.
Homework compliance
Mausbach et al. The Relationship Between Homework Compliance and Therapy Outcomes: An Updated Meta-Analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research. 2010.
PMID 20930925Homework quality
Kazantzis et al. Quantity and Quality of Homework Compliance: A Meta-Analysis of Relations With Outcome in Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Behavior Therapy. 2016.
PMID 27816086Progress feedback
de Jong et al. Using Progress Feedback to Improve Outcomes and Reduce Drop-Out, Treatment Duration, and Deterioration: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis. Clinical Psychology Review. 2021.
PMID 33721605Routine monitoring
Barkham et al. Routine Outcome Monitoring and Feedback: Research Review and Recommendations. Psychotherapy Research. 2023.
PMID 36931228Blended therapy
Nunes-Zlotkowski et al. Blended Psychological Therapy for the Treatment of Psychological Disorders in Adult Patients: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Interactive Journal of Medical Research. 2024.
PMID 39470720Technology-supported MBC
Gual-Montolio et al. How Are Information and Communication Technologies Supporting Routine Outcome Monitoring and Measurement-Based Care in Psychotherapy? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020.
PMID 32370140Evidence with context
Evaluate the practice, the product, and the fit separately.
Explore the supervised workflow and decide whether it supports the care model, population, and organization requirements.