A novel multimodal tool for telemonitoring patients with COPD

Abstract

Introduction: Among factors that underlie high rates of non-participation reported in telehealth interventions are the low older users' acceptance of information technologies and the low levels of non-compliance with therapy of chronic patients. Therefore, inclusion of potential users into design stages of assistive technologies is challenging. In this paper, the design, implementation and evaluation of a multimodal mobile application for telemonitoring chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is presented. The goal of the study was to assess the usability and feasibility of the designed tool. Methods: An iterative user-centered design methodology was applied to implement a prototype that satisfied users' requirements. Feasibility (compliance, COPD knowledge and satisfaction) of the application was assessed in a 6-month field trial with COPD patients. Results: A usable, effective and efficient prototype was released after the development process. A high compliance (86.1%) and an increasing in COPD knowledge were achieved in the field trial. Conclusions: The findings reveal the importance of integrating usability in the design development processes to improve adherence to routine tasks and to reduce the high rates of non-participation reported in recent evaluation studies of telehealth interventions. The presented tool can help to recognize early symptoms of deterioration and to support patients in COPD self-management.

The development of consumer mHealth interventions for chronic condition self-management: A systematic review.

“…Most commonly, five to 15 patient participants with a diagnosis of the targeted condition were involved in the development [9,11,19,26]. Eight 'users' of different backgrounds were engaged developing the m.CARAT application [15] and 25 users for AMICA intervention representative of the target population in this case, senior users with limited computer skills [23]. One third (n=5) of the mHealth interventions were not described as being developed with patient or user input [16,17,20,21,24].…”

“…Patient enablement of self-management was the most commonly reported impetus for mHealth development. The objective is to provide self-management support [10,11,[15][16][17][18]25], related to treatment adherence [11,13], skill development [22] and knowledge translation [20,23]. Behaviour change modification was highlighted as a significant precluding development factor [25], with physical activity or diet [10] and daily management challenges [17] a specific target.…”

“…Pre-design work was predominantly expressed as a 'requirement analysis' or 'needs assessment' either for general users diagnosed with a chronic condition or specific to the target users in a patient population. Requirement exercises were conducted with end-users [25], patients [22,26], clinical staff [26] or a specialist physician [23]. To gather these requirements, data collection methods comprised of patient interviews [22,26], staff focus groups [26], considering opinions regarding the role of technology in self-management [26].…”

“…Experts were described as; Taiwan Chest Disease Association and National Centre for HighPerformance Computing personnel [21]; experts from pulmonology, usability, software engineering, graphical design, computational linguistics and designers [23]; interdisciplinary researchers and technical personnel [13]; clinical experts in collaboration with expertise at the Centre for Smart…”

“…Design principles were articulated as being user-centred [19,22,23], person-centred [13], interdisciplinary [20,24] or participatory [10,13,19,26]. External frameworks used for mHealth development include; the US Food and Drug…”