JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Acute respiratory infection (ARI) in childhood is common but more knowledge on the burden and natural history of ARI in the community is required. A better understanding of ARI risk factors, treatment and outcomes will help support parents/carers managing their sick child at home. Digital health tools are becoming more widely adopted in clinical care and research and may assist in understanding and managing common paediatric diseases including ARI in hospitals and the community. We integrated 2 digital tools - a web-based discharge communication system and the Research Electronic Data Capture management platform (REDCap) into the Pragmatic Adaptive Trial for Acute Respiratory Infection in Children (PATRIC) - to enhance parent/carer and doctor engagement around ARI discharge communication and our research initiative.

Objective:

To determine the efficacy and usability of digital tools integrated into a paediatric patient registry for acute respiratory infection.

Methods:

Semi-structured interviews followed by software interface usability testing was conducted with 11 parents and 8 emergency department (ED) doctors working at a tertiary paediatric hospital and research centre in Perth, Western Australia in 2019. Interview questions focussed on experiences of discharge communication and clinical trial engagement. Responses were analysed using the qualitative framework method. Usability testing was carried out by directly observing participants attempting pre-determined tasks which were classified as a “success”, “failure”, “failure due to software” or “not-observed”. Participants rated the interface with the System Usability Scale (SUS - a widely used Likert-type 10 question survey measuring a user’s satisfaction converted into an overall usability score out of 100).

Results:

Parents expressed concerns about recalling verbal discharge advice and suggested technology as a viable option for discharge communication and engagement in clinical research. Doctors described the time-pressures and challenges associated with providing discharge instructions. For the discharge communication digital tool, parents gave a mean System Usability Scale score of 94/100 (“A” rating) for the mobile interface and doctors gave a mean usability score of 93/100 (“A” rating”) for the desktop interface. For the research data management tool (REDCap), parents gave a mean usability score of 78/100 (“C” rating) for the mobile interface.

Conclusions:

This study demonstrates the feasibility of combining qualitative research methods with software industry interface usability testing methods to help determine the efficacy of digital tools in a paediatric clinical research setting.