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Pharmaceutical mobile application for visually-impaired people in Thailand: development and implementation
Acrapol Nimmolrat1, Pattaraporn Khuwuthyakorn1, Purida Wientong2
1College of Arts, Media and Technology, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand.
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
|July 17, 2021
Summary
Mobile pharmaceutical apps in Thailand often fail visually-impaired users due to poor design and regulations. This study developed and tested a new application to improve access to digital health information for people with visual disabilities.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Assistive Technology
- Mobile Health (mHealth)
Background:
- Most mobile pharmaceutical applications in Thailand are inadequate for visually-impaired individuals due to poor regulations, design flaws, and lack of user support.
- This deficiency limits access to essential digital health information for people with visual disabilities in primary medical services.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze, design, and develop a mobile pharmaceutical application tailored to the needs of visually-impaired users.
- To evaluate the usability and user satisfaction of the developed application.
Main Methods:
- Development of a mobile pharmaceutical application with five core functions based on user needs analysis.
- Usability testing and user satisfaction surveys were conducted with visually-impaired individuals.
Main Results:
- The application's information input function exhibited low usability, with the medicinal database missing 71 times and voice command missing 34 times during testing.
- Users with higher usage levels reported greater satisfaction with attitude, confidence, user interface, and system performance.
- Satisfaction scores regarding implementation were consistent across different usage levels.
Conclusions:
- The developed mobile application, leveraging smart technology, aims to enhance self-care efficacy for visually-impaired individuals in Thailand.
- While the application offers suitable functions, disparities in healthcare access may persist if users lack adequate information technology (IT) skills.
