[Usability of an app to overcome language barriers in paramedic care]

Communication with foreign-speaking patients in emergency medical situations can be challenging. In contrast to the inpatient setting, adequate interpreters are often not readily available in emergency services. At the same time, however, emergency situations require rapid assessment as the basis for any treatment.

A smartphone app that enables basic communication in 18 languages using 600 different phrases was piloted over a period of 6 months in four emergency medical service stations. Finally, the usability of the app was evaluated by the whole rescue service staff in a questionnaire study using the System Usability Score and the AttrakDiff questionnaire.

The response rate was 48.5% and n = 48 questionnaires were evaluated. The average age of the respondents was 36 years and almost two-thirds were male. The System Usability Score showed a median of 67.5 points, indicating borderline good usability. The AttrakDiff questionnaire showed pragmatic quality with an average of 0.69 (SD 0.86), hedonic quality with 0.59 (SD 0.58), and attractiveness (ATT) with 0.64 points (SD 0.83). The average values show satisfying results above the neutral limit of 0. It was observed that those rescue workers who stated that they had already actively used the app with patients rated the app significantly better.

Given that the app studied is a complex work tool, its usability and attractiveness were rated as overall good, and paramedics who had already used the app rated it even more positively. This could indicate a hesitancy by some paramedics to use a complex digital tool in complex situations that are already characterized by language and cultural barriers.