Abstract: The emerging evidence suggests that self-care assisted by smartphone applications provides an opportunity to reduce re-hospitalization and improve quality of life for heart failure patients. But rates of persistent use and user engagement are still low. Systematic mHealth usability assessments has been insufficient. We developed a novel mobile phone app with a virtual-human assistant through a user centric design and conducted a systematic usability assessment to improve its acceptance and later adoption.

Describe the new knowledge and additional skills the participant will gain after attending your presentation.: 1. The study provides a good example of involving user engagement as an important dimension in a usability assessment.
2. The usability testing model in this study can be translational and adapted to other health management programs through a disease-specific customization with the involvement of patients and key stakeholders.
3. The study can contribute to the establishment of a standardized, systematic mHealth usability assessment for heart failure patients to improve methodological consistency and make it possible to compare findings across different mHealth application evaluations.

Authors:

Lingling Zhang (Presenter)
University of Massachusetts Boston

Matias Volonte, Clemson University
Sabarish Babu, Clemson University