Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jan 4, 2020
Date Accepted: Jul 19, 2020
Evaluating Usability and Feasibility of an Image-Based Mobile Health app for Post-drainage Monitoring
ABSTRACT
Background:
The application of mobile health (mHealth) platforms to monitor recovery in the post-discharge period has been increased in recent years. Despite widespread enthusiasm for mHealth, few studies evaluate the usability and user experience of mHealth in patients with surgical drainage.
Objective:
Our objectives were to (1) develop an image-based smartphone app SurgCare for post-drainage monitoring, and (2) to determine the feasibility and clinical value of SurgCare in patients with drainage.
Methods:
We enrolled 80 patients with biliary or peritoneal drainages into this study. Fifty were assigned to the Surgcare group who record data with the smartphone app, and thirty patients were assigned to the control group record the data with conventional hand recording to monitor their drainage status. The patients continued to record data until drain removal. The primary aim was to validate user feasibility, which defined as the proportion of patients using each element of the system. Moreover, the secondary aim was to evaluate the association of compliance with SurgCare and the occurrence of unexpected events.
Results:
The average submission date was 14.98 days, and the overall daily submission rate was 84.2%. The average system usability scale was 83.7 + 3.5. This system met the definition of “definitely feasible” in 34 patients, “possible feasible” in 10 patients, and “not feasible” in 3 patients. By compliance with the Surgcare, we categorized the patients into good compliance, poor compliance, and control group. We found that the occurrence rate of complication in good compliance, poor compliance, and control group was 5.2 % vs. 11.1% vs. 25.9%, respectively, with a statistically significant difference. (P = ) The unexpected hospital return and readmission were lower in good compliance group than poor compliance and control groups.
Conclusions:
Patients can learn to use a smartphone app for post drainage monitoring with high user satisfaction. We also identified the high compliance of app-based drainage record design features as an aspect of mHealth development can improve surgical care.
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