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Efficacy of Digital Health Tools for a Pediatric Patient Registry: Semistructured Interviews and Interface Usability
Sarah Doyle1, Rebecca Pavlos2, Samantha J Carlson2
1Emergency Department, Perth Children's Hospital, Perth, Australia.
Insights
Digital tools significantly improved parent and physician engagement in pediatric acute respiratory infection (ARI) research and discharge communication. Usability testing confirmed high efficacy for these digital health solutions in clinical settings.
Area of Science:
- Digital Health
- Pediatric Clinical Research
- Health Informatics
Background:
- Acute respiratory infection (ARI) in children presents a significant public health burden, necessitating improved community management strategies.
- Digital health tools offer potential solutions for enhancing patient and physician engagement in pediatric care and research.
- Integrating digital platforms into clinical trials can streamline data collection and improve communication for common childhood illnesses like ARI.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy and usability of digital tools integrated into a pediatric patient registry for acute respiratory infection (ARI).
- To assess parent and physician experiences with digital discharge communication and clinical trial engagement.
- To determine the feasibility of combining qualitative research with usability testing for digital health interventions in pediatrics.
Main Methods:
- Conducted semistructured interviews with 11 parents and 8 emergency department physicians.
- Performed software interface usability testing using the System Usability Scale (SUS) on digital tools.
- Analyzed participant responses using the qualitative Framework Method and observed task completion for digital interface interaction.
Main Results:
- A majority of parents (82%) preferred electronic discharge advice, and most (73%) favored digital technology for research engagement.
- High usability scores were achieved for the discharge communication tool (Parents: 94/100, Physicians: 93/100).
- The REDCap platform achieved a moderate usability score (Parents: 78/100), indicating room for improvement in its mobile interface.
Conclusions:
- Digital tools, including a web-based discharge system and REDCap, are feasible and effective for enhancing parent and physician engagement in pediatric ARI research.
- Qualitative interviews and quantitative usability testing (SUS) provide valuable insights into the efficacy of digital health tools in clinical research.
- This study demonstrates a successful model for evaluating digital health interventions in pediatric settings, improving both clinical communication and research participation.
Background:
Acute respiratory infection (ARI) in childhood is common, but more knowledge on the burden and natural history of ARI in the community is required. A better understanding of ARI risk factors, treatment, and outcomes will help support parents to manage their sick child at home. Digital health tools are becoming more widely adopted in clinical care and research and may assist in understanding and managing common pediatric diseases, including ARI, in hospitals and in the community. We integrated 2 digital tools-a web-based discharge communication system and the REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) platform-into the Pragmatic Adaptive Trial for Acute Respiratory Infection in Children to enhance parent and physician engagement around ARI discharge communication and our patient registry.
Objective:
The objective of this study is to determine the efficacy and usability of digital tools integrated into a pediatric patient registry for ARI.
Methods:
Semistructured interviews and software interface usability testing were conducted with 11 parents and 8 emergency department physicians working at a tertiary pediatric hospital and research center in Perth, Western Australia, in 2019. Questions focused on experiences of discharge communication and clinical trial engagement. Responses were analyzed using the qualitative Framework Method. Participants were directly observed using digital interfaces as they attempted predetermined tasks that were then classified as success, failure, software failure, or not observed. Participants rated the interfaces using the System Usability Scale (SUS).
Results:
Most parents (9/11, 82%) indicated that they usually received verbal discharge advice, with some (5/11, 45%) recalling receiving preprinted resources from their physician. Most (8/11, 73%) would also like to receive discharge advice electronically. Most of the physicians (7/8, 88%) described their usual practice as verbal discharge instructions, with some (3/8, 38%) reporting time pressures associated with providing discharge instructions. The digital technology option was preferred for engaging in research by most parents (8/11, 73%). For the discharge communication digital tool, parents gave a mean SUS score of 94/100 (SD 4.3; A grade) for the mobile interface and physicians gave a mean usability score of 93/100 (SD 4.7; A grade) for the desktop interface. For the research data management tool (REDCap), parents gave a mean usability score of 78/100 (SD 11.0; C grade) for the mobile interface.
Conclusions:
Semistructured interviews allowed us to better understand parent and physician experiences of discharge communication and clinical research engagement. Software interface usability testing methods and use of the SUS helped us gauge the efficacy of our digital tools with both parent and physician users. This study demonstrates the feasibility of combining qualitative research methods with software industry interface usability testing methods to help determine the efficacy of digital tools in a pediatric clinical research setting.
