Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Aug 7, 2019
Date Accepted: Dec 21, 2019
Developing a Breast Cancer Self-Management Support mHealth Application in Taiwan: A Design Thinking Approach
ABSTRACT
Background:
Evidence has shown that self-management support from mobile health applications (Apps) can improve quality of life in survivorship. While many breast cancer self-management supporting Apps exist, few papers document the procedure of how to develop a user-friendly App from the patient’s perspective.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the information needs of Taiwanese women with breast cancer to inform a self-management support mHealth application.
Methods:
The five-step design thinking approach: empathy, define, ideate, prototype and test was used through focus groups and individual interviews to collect Taiwanese women with breast cancer’s requirements and expectations of the App. Thematic analysis was used to identify information needs.
Results:
A total of eight major themes including treatment, physical activity, diet, emotional support, health record, social resources, experience sharing and expert consultation were identified. Minor themes included a desire to use the App under professional supervision and a trustworthy App manager to ensure the credibility of information.
Conclusions:
The strengths on the design thinking approach were user-centered design and cultural sensitivity. The results retrieved from each step contribute to the development of the App and reduce the gap between end users and developers. A mobile health application that addresses these eight main themes could facilitate disease self-management for Taiwanese women with breast cancer.
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© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.