Patient-Centered Chronic Wound Care Mobile Apps: Systematic Identification, Analysis, and Assessment

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Medical Informatics
• Patient Support Systems

Background:

• Chronic wound prevalence is increasing globally, particularly in aging populations.
• These wounds cause significant patient distress and impose substantial healthcare costs.
• eHealth solutions are emerging, but a systematic analysis of chronic wound apps is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically identify and assess mobile applications for chronic wound patients.
• To evaluate app quality from both patient and physician perspectives.
• To analyze user technical affinity with these digital health tools.

Main Methods:

• Systematic search of Google Play Store and Apple App Store for German/English apps (April-May 2022).
• Inclusion of 3 apps for independent review by 10 physicians using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) and System Usability Scale (SUS).
• Further assessment of the highest-rated app by 11 patients using the user version (uMARS) and SUS, collecting Affinity for Technology Interaction (ATI) scores.

Main Results:

• Physician ratings (MARS: 2.64-3.88/5, SUS: 50.75-80.5/100) and patient ratings (uMARS: 3.89/5) indicated mediocre app quality.
• WUND APP received the highest physician MARS score and comparable patient uMARS rating.
• Patients exhibited slightly lower technical affinity (ATI: 3.62/6) compared to physicians (ATI: 3.88/6).

Conclusions:

• Physician and patient quality assessments were similar, revealing mediocre app quality for chronic wound care.
• A limited number of adequate apps exist, highlighting the need for improved development focused on user needs.
• The Affinity for Technology Interaction scale effectively measured technical affinity across user groups.