Cross-Platform Mobile App Development for Disseminating Public Health Information to Travelers in Thailand: Development and Usability (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Disease is a risk that travelers have identified as a key factor in deciding about their travel plans; many people are concerned about getting sick while traveling abroad. Information from mobile devices could be an effective means for travelers to access information about the disease situation in their planned destinations, thereby reducing the risk of disease exposure. OBJECTIVE We developed a mobile app using cross-platform technology to provide information about the disease situation for travelers to Thailand. We aimed to assess the app’s usability in terms of engagement, search logs, and effectiveness among target users. METHODS We developed the app, ThaiEpidemics, using the principle of mobile application development life cycle. The app employed cross-platform technology and ran on both iOS and Android. As its data source, the app used data from national disease surveillance. We conduced our study among visitors to Travel Clinic in the Hospital for Tropical Medicine. The participants were informed that the app would collect the usage and search logs related to their queries. After the second log-in, the app prompted participants to complete an e-survey regarding their opinions and preferences related to their awareness of the disease situation. RESULTS We based our prototype of ThaiEpidemics on a conceptualized framework for visualizing the distribution of 14 major diseases of concern to tourists in Southeast Asia. The app used weekly updated national disease surveillance data, and it provided users with functions and features to search for and visualize the disease situation in Thailand. The participants could access information about their current location and elsewhere in the country. In all, 83 people installed the app, and 52 responded to the e-survey. Regardless of age, education, and continent of origin, almost all e-survey respondents believed the app had raised their awareness of the disease situation when travelling. Most participants searched for information for all 14 diseases; some searched for information about dengue and malaria. CONCLUSIONS ThaiEpidemics evidently has potential usefulness for travelers. It is important for app developers to address standardization of the data source and users’ concerns about the confidentiality and safety of their mobile devices. We developed ThaiEpidemics as open source software; thus, general developers and others can use our files for further analysis and to build reports and dashboards that meet their own requirements.