JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The exponential growth of telehealth is revolutionizing healthcare delivery, but its evaluation has not matched the pace of its uptake. Various forms of assessment, from single-item to more-extensive questionnaires, have been used to assess telehealth and digital therapeutics and their usability. The most-frequently used questionnaire is the “Telehealth Usability Questionnaire” (TUQ). The use of the TUQ is limited by its restricted availability in languages other than English and its feasibility.

Objective:

The aims of this study were to create a translated German TUQ version and a derived short questionnaire for patients: “Telehealth Usability and Utility Short Questionnaire for patients” (TUUSQ).

Methods:

As a first step, the original 21-item TUQ was forward- and back-translated twice. In the second step, 13 TUQ items were selected for their suitability for general evaluation of telehealth on the basis of expert opinion. These 13 items were surveyed in four studies evaluating 13 healthcare applications including digital therapeutics and a telehealth system (n1 = 129; n2 = 220; n3 = 30; n4 = 12). Psychometric exploratory factor analysis was conducted.

Results:

The analysis revealed that a parsimonious factor structure with two factors (“healthcare utility” and “usability”) is sufficient to describe the patient’s perception. Consequently, the questionnaire could be shortened to six items without compromising its informativeness.

Conclusions:

We provide a linguistically precise German version of the TUQ for assessing the usability and utility of telehealth. Beyond that, we supply a highly feasible short version that is versatile for general use in telehealth, mobile Health and digital therapeutics and which distinguishes between the two factors “healthcare utility” and “usability” in patients. Clinical Trial: No Trial Registration was necessary.