Usability evaluation of a mobile health application by older adults in Thailand

As the world’s population is aging, research on older adults and their use of IT is becoming more important. Usability issues were found one of the main problems hindering older adults from using IT, including mobile health application. This study aims to understand older adults’ behavior and to identify barriers and enablers for using a mobile health application, called Raksa. Two theories, namely Usability and Accessibility were adopted as a conceptual framework. A think-aloud protocol, a system usability scale (SUS), and in-depth interviews were utilized. ISO 9241-11 guide was used for identifying usability performance level of Raksa application based on think-aloud approach. Task incompletion rate, error rate and time on task were calculated to assess effectiveness and efficiency. Interviews were conducted for validating reason of use and comment on the application design, using Nielsen’s 5 quality components namely, Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Error and Satisfaction. The results showed that the task to find a medical specialist for a consultation was deemed the most difficult by the participants as it has the lowest task completed rates and the longest times on task. The task to create account and register had the most errors. The average satisfaction (SUS score) was 31.50, indicating poor system usability. Demographic data showed males were more successful in task completion. Educational level were related to task performance, and older adults with more experienced in information technology or social media achieved higher performance rate. This research identified usability problems and barriers that may affect usability in older adults, including visual design, poor interaction and navigation, user interface difficulty to understanding. Recommendations for design modifications were offered

Influential Factors of Usage Behavior of Potential Hypertension Patients to Use Personal Health Assistant Service and Technology in a Private Hospital in Bangkok

Purpose: The study aims to investigate the determinants of behavioral intention toward using personal health assistant services and technology for potential hypertension patients in a private hospital in Bangkok. The developed conceptual framework contains perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude toward using, customer satisfaction, social influence, facilitating condition, behavioral intention, and usage behavior. Research design, data, and methodology: 500 participants involved in this study, applying purposive, stratified random, and convenience samplings. To assess content validity and reliability test, the index of item objective congruence (IOC) and Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient value (pilot testing) of 50 samples were conducted. The research applied statistical method, using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Results: Perceived ease of use significantly influences attitudes toward using. Attitude toward use has a significant influence on customer satisfaction but has no significant influence on behavioral intention. Social influence and facilitating conditions significantly influence behavioral intention. Furthermore, behavioral intention significantly influences usage behavior. Nevertheless, perceived usefulness has no significant influence on attitude toward use. Conclusions: The leading enterprises in healthcare industry should push effort more than even to redefine health technology by moving to the value-based care model for patients, considering significant factors enhancing usage behavior

Telemedicine – Meaning, Challenges and Opportunities

Medical service is one of the crucial policies and decent medical service is required by the population in every country. There are three main obstacles which prevent people from obtaining proper medical cares and treatments. First, the deficiency of medical staffs especially physicians which occur even in the developed countries. Second, regarding an important demographic issue, an increase in the number of the elderly makes the medical services more demanding. Finally, geographical aspect also plays a major role in healthcare inequality. The population dwelling in rural or remote areas struggle from accessing proper medical services. Information and communication technologies have become an important infrastructure upon which several domains can build in order to achieve more effective solutions. Integrating such technologies into the medical discipline results in telemedicine which is currently available across the globe. This article describes telemedicine in three key aspects including current state, challenges and opportunities based upon existing studies and implementations

Telemedicine – Meaning, Challenges and Opportunities

Medical service is one of the crucial policies and decent medical service is required by the population in every country. There are three main obstacles which prevent people from obtaining proper medical cares and treatments. First, the deficiency of medical staffs especially physicians which occur even in the developed countries. Second, regarding an important demographic issue, an increase in the number of the elderly makes the medical services more demanding. Finally, geographical aspect also plays a major role in healthcare inequality. The population dwelling in rural or remote areas struggle from accessing proper medical services. Information and communication technologies have become an important infrastructure upon which several domains can build in order to achieve more effective solutions. Integrating such technologies into the medical discipline results in telemedicine which is currently available across the globe. This article describes telemedicine in three key aspects including current state, challenges and opportunities based upon existing studies and implementations

The Impact of Digital Service Quality Toward Customer Engagement: A Case Study of Telemedicine in Thailand

Purpose: The aims of this study are to examine the effect of digital service quality on customer engagement with telemedicine systems and to investigate how such effects change depending on a variety of socioeconomic characteristics.   Design/methodology/approach:  The survey research with online questionnaire was conducted with 405 telemedicine experienced samples. The proposed hypotheses were tested using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method.   Findings:  The results revealed that digital service quality significantly influences customer engagement. A second-order confirmatory factor analysis of the digital service quality (DSQ) construct revealed that the efficiency dimension best explained DSQ, followed by the responsiveness and interaction dimensions. The study of moderation revealed that the effect of DSQ on CE was greater in younger age groups than in older age groups. In addition, those with a higher level of formal education appear to have higher levels of CE than those with a lesser level of formal education.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The study will help practitioners create telemedicine services that are more efficient and effective so that patients are more engaged and loyal to the telemedicine service providers.   Originality/value: The value of the study is that it is one of the rare attempts to clarify the consequences of digital service quality from the perspective of the consumer, and it proposes several implications and recommendations

New Product Development Processes for IOT-Enabled Home Use Medical Devices: A Systematic Review

Background: In the new forefront of healthcare at patients’ homes, medical devices developed to use at home setting by lay users are essential. The adoption of home-use medical devices will benefit both patients and public healthcare services in terms of quality of life, enhanced outcomes, and reduced cost of care. Home use medical devices associated with Internet-Of-Things (IOT) technology assists patients in performing self-care as well as providing health information remotely to health care professionals. However, adopting technology requires understanding the nature of the medical device and medical device development (MDD). Existing studies concerning the new product development (NPD) processes or design processes were systematically reviewed to explore knowledge and expertise to provide a framework for IOT engineers or designers to adopt IOT technology to home use medical devices. Objective: This study aimed to review the published literature to explore the current studies in the field of the NPD process, design process, design methodology, and outcome of the device affecting user acceptance. Methods: A systematic review following PRISMA guidelines of the English language literature from four electronic databases and academic search engines published from 2007 to 2018 was conducted. The papers were screened and assessed following predefined inclusive and exclusive criteria. The results were analyzed according to the research questions. Results: The findings revealed state-of-the-art in the NPD process and design process (n=4), the design methodology (n=23), and the resultant outcomes of empirical or clinical research in the validation stage (n=14) of medical device development (MDD). The findings also delineated existing studies in NPD, design process, and design methodologies aimed to ensure that medical devices would be effective and safe. Human factor engineering (HFE), cognitive method, ethnographic, and other methodologies were proposed to understand users, uses and context of use. Barriers, constraints, and multidisciplinary communication were addressed. Tools, processes, and methodologies were proposed to overcome the barriers. Conclusion: As home-use medical device development (MDD) and the adoption of IOT technology is now at a crossroads. This study addresses the necessity for future academic studies related to IOT adoption to MDD, including unique risks, multidisciplinary problems, emerging from IOT technology. Finally, future studies aimed at fabricating the NPD process or design process for IOT home-use medical devices to gain user acceptance were outlined

An Investigation on Behavioral Intention toward Usage of Personal Health Assistant Service and Technology Among Patients in Bangkok, Thailand

Purpose: The study aims to investigate the determinants of behavioral intention toward the usage behavior of personal health assistant services and technology for hypertension patients of a private hospital in Bangkok. Eight variables conform to the conceptual framework, including perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude toward using, customer satisfaction, social influencing, facilitating condition, behavioral intention, and usage behavior. Research design, data, and methodology: The data were collected from 500 participants. The sampling techniques used were purposive, stratified random, and convenience samplings. Before collecting the data, the index of item objective congruence (IOC) and Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient value (pilot testing) of 50 samples were applied. The main statistical approaches involve confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Results: Perceived usefulness has a significant influence on attitude toward use. Attitude toward use has a significant influence on customer satisfaction and behavioral intention. Social influence and facilitating conditions significantly influence behavioral intention. In addition, behavioral intention significantly influences use behavior. On the other hand, perceived ease of use does not significantly influence attitudes toward using personal healthcare assistant services. Conclusions: Healthcare service providers can enhance the purchase intention of digital healthcare technology, which could remarkably benefit patients by tracking and monitoring their health conditions

Analysis of Factors Affecting Multimedia Delivery for Elderly People

This study aims to apply appropriate information technology services for elderly people in order to fill the communication gap between the elderly, family members and friends by using a multimedia delivery platform. The aim is to improve the quality of life of the elderly people who live alone. It is intended to enhance the lives of elderly people to stay connected with family members, and friends by sending multimedia content including text, audio, image and video. We analyze the factors affecting the elderly person’s intention to use the platform by using Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model. The model evaluates the effectiveness of the multimedia delivery platform over the six key UTAUT constructs, namely, Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitation Conditions, Perceived Security, and Experience and Voluntariness to Behavioral Intention. The analysis is twofold: to determine the factors affecting the intention of the elderly people in using the multimedia delivery platform, and to investigate how to reduce the communication gap between the elderly, family members and friends.This study aims to apply appropriate information technology services for elderly people in order to fill the communication gap between the elderly, family members and friends by using a multimedia delivery platform. The aim is to improve the quality of life of the elderly people who live alone. It is intended to enhance the lives of elderly people to stay connected with family members, and friends by sending multimedia content including text, audio, image and video. We analyze the factors affecting the elderly person’s intention to use the platform by using Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model. The model evaluates the effectiveness of the multimedia delivery platform over the six key UTAUT constructs, namely, Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitation Conditions, Perceived Security, and Experience and Voluntariness to Behavioral Intention. The analysis is twofold: to determine the factors affecting the intention of the elderly people in using the multimedia delivery platform, and to investigate how to reduce the communication gap between the elderly, family members and friends

An overview of patient acceptance of Health Information Technology in developing countries: a review and conceptual model

The potential to improve the quality, efficiency, outcomes, patient safety and reduce cost of healthcare by Health Information Technology (HIT) has been established by researchers. But unfortunately HIT systems are not properly utilized or are not widely available. This problem is even more glaring in developing countries. This article presents a review of some available HIT systems in order to assess the level of their presence and the technology used in developing them. Works related to acceptance of HIT systems were also reviewed so as to study the gaps in this area and propose a solution in order to fill the gaps identified. The problems discovered from this review include lack of availability of these systems especially in developing countries, low rate of HIT systems acceptance and insufficient works on patient acceptance of HIT systems. Studying the factors that affect the acceptance of HIT systems by patients and considering the factors while developing the systems will play a significant role in getting over the aforementioned limitations. As Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is one of the most popular models for studying users' perception and acceptance of Information System (IS)/Information Technology (IT), we proposed a conceptual model of HIT acceptance in developing countries based on TAM

An overview of patient acceptance of Health Information Technology in developing countries: a review and conceptual model

The potential to improve the quality, efficiency, outcomes, patient safety and reduce cost of healthcare by Health Information Technology (HIT) has been established by researchers. But unfortunately HIT systems are not properly utilized or are not widely available. This problem is even more glaring in developing countries. This article presents a review of some available HIT systems in order to assess the level of their presence and the technology used in developing them. Works related to acceptance of HIT systems were also reviewed so as to study the gaps in this area and propose a solution in order to fill the gaps identified. The problems discovered from this review include lack of availability of these systems especially in developing countries, low rate of HIT systems acceptance and insufficient works on patient acceptance of HIT systems. Studying the factors that affect the acceptance of HIT systems by patients and considering the factors while developing the systems will play a significant role in getting over the aforementioned limitations. As Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is one of the most popular models for studying users\u27 perception and acceptance of Information System (IS)/Information Technology (IT), we proposed a conceptual model of HIT acceptance in developing countries based on TAM