Abstract

Objective

The study aims to develop a mHealth application for seizure management based on the human system integration (HSI) approach.

Background

Unmet healthcare needs among people with epilepsy continue to exist despite the advancement in healthcare technology. Current seizure management methods are found to be ineffective. Therefore, a more efficient strategy such as mHealth technology is necessary to aid seizure management.

Method

The needs identification phase involved identifying the user requirements by interviewing 10 stakeholders and conducting thematic analysis and needs interpretation technique. In the solution identification phase, the system requirements were derived using various human-centered design and systems engineering approaches and were evaluated through quality function deployment to determine design targets. For the design and evaluation phase, the design targets were reflected in the app through the iterative prototyping process, and the interface and functional design were evaluated by seven human factors and ergonomics experts and four stakeholders, respectively.

Results

Three primary needs and ten user requirements were derived from the needs identification phase. Ten out of fifteen system requirements were selected as design targets to be included in the final prototype. Results of the evaluation showed that the interface design of the proposed app showed superior usability compared to a competitor app and that the app functions were beneficial for the stakeholders.

Conclusion

The mHealth app designed through the HSI framework showed good potential in addressing the main issues in seizure management.

Application

The mHealth app design methodology based on the HSI approach can be applied to the design of small-scale systems in various domains.