An Evaluation Service for Digital Public Health Interventions: User-Centered Design Approach

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Digital Health Interventions
• Health Technology Evaluation

Background:

• Digital health interventions (DHIs) offer potential for public health improvement but face challenges in integrating biomedical and digital development perspectives for evaluation.
• Discrepancies between biomedical researchers' and digital developers' views on effective interventions hinder DHI evaluation.
• A unified approach is needed to bridge the gap in evaluating DHIs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To operationalize an evaluation framework combining biomedical and digital approaches for DHIs.
• To demonstrate the impact, cost-effectiveness, and public health benefits of DHIs.
• To address the challenge of integrating diverse perspectives in DHI evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Employed a multidisciplinary team including service designers, academics, and public health professionals.
• Utilized user-centered design methods: qualitative research, end-user engagement, and iterative learning.
• Incorporated feedback from stakeholders, senior leaders, and a working group.

Main Results:

• Identified 26 themes and 82 user needs, formalized as 46 Jobs To Be Done.
• Defined seven essential concepts for DHI evaluation, prioritizing three for development.
• Refined concepts into the Public Health England Evaluation Service, validated with the Couch-to-5K app team.

Conclusions:

• An iterative, user-centered design approach successfully integrated academic, biomedical, and digital development expertise for DHI evaluation.
• Design-led methodologies provide significant value in public health settings.
• The developed Evaluating Digital Health Products service is currently utilized by UK health bodies and available to others.