End Users' Perspectives on the Quality and Design of mHealth Technologies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the expansion of mHealth in the Philippines. However, the rapid development resulted in the limited end-user engagement to define requirements and collect feedback along the development cycle. This gap and the continued use of mHealth highlight the necessity to ensure that they are responsive to the needs of the end-users. OBJECTIVE The goal of the study is to understand, using the end-users’ perspectives, the design and quality of mHealth technology implementations in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic with focus on areas identified by stakeholders: (1) utility, (2) technology readiness level, (3) design, (4) information, (5) usability, (6) features, and (7) security and privacy. METHODS A descriptive qualitative design using a combination of individual interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) was used. We conducted eight discussion sessions with 16 end-users – five individual interviews and three FGDs with 11 participants. RESULTS The qualitative analysis identified eighteen themes that were organized under the seven focus areas: (1) Utility: use of mHealth technologies; motivations in using mHealth; (2) Technology readiness: mobile technology literacy, user segmentation; (3) Design: user interface design, language and content accessibility, and technology design; (4) Information: accuracy of information, use of information; (5) Usability: design factors, dependency on human processes, and technical issues; (6) Features: interoperability and data integration, other feature and design recommendations, and technology features and upgrades, and (7) Privacy and security: trust that mHealth can secure data, lack of information, and policies. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights the importance of engaging end-users to ensure that mHealth technologies are accessible and designed to address their needs – making it a valuable tool in curbing the pandemic. Accessibility, privacy and security, simple interface, and integration are some of the design and quality areas important to end-users. Recognizing the need to evaluate the implementation of mHealth technologies, we offer six principles for developers, researchers, and implementers to consider when scaling up or developing new mHealth solutions in low resource settings.