BACKGROUND
Optimal prehabilitation and rehabilitation programmes for orthopaedic joint replacement patients ensure faster return to function, earlier discharge from hospital and improved patient satisfaction. Digital Health Interventions (DHI) show promise as a supporting tool for re-enablement. The aim of this study is to evaluate a re-enablement platform that we have developed that uses a holistic systems approach to address the ‘de-enablement’ that occurs as an in-patient in hospital with the elderly population most at risk of this. The AIMS platform is anticipated to deliver improved patient participation in recovery and self-management through education and the ability to track rehabilitation progression in hospital and after patient discharge.
OBJECTIVE
This study’s main goal is to examine the usability of the AIMS platform from both the patients’ and clinicians’ perspectives.
METHODS
Two common instruments were used to measure usability: the System Usability Scale (SUS) with 10 items and, for finer granularity, the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) with 26 items. 26 physiotherapists and healthcare professionals evaluated the AIMS clinical portal and 44 patients in hospital for total knee replacement (TKR), total hip replacement (THR) or dynamic hip screw (DNS) evaluated the AIMS app.
RESULTS
For the AIMS clinical portal the mean SUS score obtained was 82.88 with a median of 86.25 and a standard deviation of 13.07, which would be considered Good/Excellent according to the Bangor, Kortum and Miller adjective rating scale. For UEQ, the means of the normalised scores (range -3 to +3) were: Attractiveness: 2.68; Perspicuity: 2.78; Efficiency: 2.78; Dependability: 2.30; Stimulation: 1.95; and Novelty: 1.63, which shows all dimensions being class as as Excellent against the benchmark, confirming the results from the SUS questionnaire. For the AIMS app, the mean SUS score obtained was 74.41 with a median of 77.50 and a standard deviation of 10.26, which would be considered Good according to the Bangor, Kortum and Miller adjective rating scale. For UEQ, the means of the normalised scores were: Attractiveness: 2.73; Perspicuity: 2.90; Efficiency: 2.80; Dependability: 2.43; Stimulation: 2.20; and Novelty: 1.43, which shows all dimensions classed as Excellent against the benchmark with the exception of Novelty, which has been classed as Good, providing slightly better results than the SUS questionnaire.
CONCLUSIONS
The study has shown that both the AIMS clinical portal and the mobile app have Good to Excellent usability scores and the current platform provides a solid foundation for the next phase of research that will involve evaluating the effectiveness of the platform to improve patient outcomes following TKA/THA.