Dear HIFA and CHIFA colleagues,
In 2015 HIFA members published a Comment in The Lancet Global Health: 'Mobile health-care information for all: a global challenge' [1] and the following year Geoff Royston presented a poster on Assessing mobile healthcare information applications for citizens in low-income countries, noting that the likely usefulness of apps could/should be assessed prior to deployment. 'Valuable insights into the likely practical impact of mHealth information apps can be obtained, even without field-based evaluation, from a criterion-based assessment of their features.' [2] This new paper, citing the HIFA work, looks at how to define such criteria.
CITATION: A Smartphone Application for Caregivers of Children With Severe Burns: A Survey to Identify Minimum Data Set and Requirements Get access Arrow [restricted access]
Fatemeh Rangraz Jeddi, PhD, Ehsan Nabovati, PhD, Mohammadreza Mobayen, MD, Hossein Akbari, PhD, Alireza Feizkhah, MD, Mojdeh Motalebi Kashani, BSc, Parissa Bagheri Toolaroud, PhD
Journal of Burn Care & Research, irad027, https://doi.org/10.1093/jbcr/irad027
ABSTRACT
Recent advances in digital health and increasing access to mobile health (mHealth) tools have led to more effective self-care. This study aimed to identify the minimum data set (MDS) and the requirements of a smartphone application (app) to support caregivers of children with severe burns. The study was performed in three phases in a burn center in the north of Iran in 2022. In the first phase, a literature review was performed. In the second phase, interviews were conducted with 18 caregivers. The third phase was performed in two stages: first, an initial questionnaire was prepared in which the content validity ratio and content validity index were calculated. The final questionnaire included 71 data elements about the MDS and requirements and open-ended elements. Then, the data elements were surveyed by 25 burn experts using the Delphi technique. The minimum acceptable mean score for each item was 3.75. Out of the 71 elements in the first Delphi round, 51 were accepted. In the second Delphi round, 14 data elements were assessed. The most important elements for the MDS were a family relationship, TBSA, the primary cause of the burn, anatomical location, itch, pain, and infection. User registration, educational materials, caregiver–clinician communication, chat box, and appointment booking were the most highlighted functional requirements. Safe login was the most important element for the nonfunctional requirements. It is recommended that health managers and software designers use these functionalities in designing smartphone apps for caregivers of children with burns.
[1] Royston G, Hagar C, Long L, McMahon D, Pakenham-Walsh N, Wadhwani N on behalf of the mHIFA Working Group. Mobile health-care information for all: a global challenge. The Lancet Global Health July 2015, Volume 3, No. 7, e356–e357
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(15)00054-6/fulltext
[2] https://www.hifa.org/sites/default/files/other_publications_uploads/mHIF...
Best wishes, Neil
Coordinator, mHIFA Project (Mobile Healthcare Information For All) - Supported by HIFA members
http://www.hifa.org/projects/mobile-hifa-mhifa
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
