Preparing India to Leverage Power of Mobile Technology: Development of a Bilingual Mobile Health Tool for Heart Patients

Abstract

Background: Mobile health technology offers promising means to implement public health strategies for the prevention and management of chronic conditions. However, at the moment, there is a dearth of both; specific mobile health tools tailored for the knowledge and language needs of Indian population; as well as enough systematic and scientific clinical data to analyse their impact in varied Indian socioeconomic and disease populations. Objective: To develop a smartphone-based bilingual educational mobile application for heart patients and pilot test in an Indian clinical setting. Methods: An Android™ based mobile application was developed according to a systematic instructional design model. Thereafter, expert assessment was done by 3 software engineers and 2 healthcare professionals using a peer-reviewed, objective and multidimensional Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). A pilot user satisfaction evaluation was done based on feedback from 35 Coronary Artery Disease patients visiting Cardiology outpatient Department of a North Indian tertiary care centre. Results: An Android™ based mobile application named as ‘Happy Heart’ was developed. The content was developed in both Hindi and English under professional supervision. For this mobile application, the Mean MARS score was 3.60 ± 0.86 and subjectivity score was 3.30 ± 1.03. The overall user satisfaction response for the mobile application was 4.09 ± 0.75 indicating that most of the testers found it useful. Conclusion: This mobile application is developed as a research tool to further conduct a clinical study in Coronary Artery Disease Patients. Current evaluation was a pilot testing wherein this application showed promising results.