Usability of Telemedicine Mobile Applications during COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: A Heuristic Evaluation of Patient User Interfaces

Healthcare Providers' Experience with Saudi Arabia's 937 Virtual Medical Call Centers and Telehealth

Introduction

This cross-sectional descriptive study evaluates the experiences and perceptions of healthcare providers (HCPs) regarding the 937 medical call center in Saudi Arabia, a key telemedicine initiative.

Aim

 To assess HCP satisfaction, identify challenges, and provide recommendations for improvement.

Methods

Conducted from November 20th to December 15th, 2022, the study surveyed 454 HCPs, achieving a 90.5% response rate.

Results

A majority (86.8%) of respondents were satisfied with the call center, valuing its ease of use and effectiveness in healthcare delivery. However, challenges such as the accuracy of remote medical assessments, the need for clearer telehealth regulations, and concerns over management support and consultation overlaps were identified. The study also highlights the importance of ongoing support and updates, comprehensive telehealth regulations, integration of more medical specialties, and improvements in system integration and data confidentiality.

Conclusion

The study underscores the need for strategic enhancements to the 937 call center to further improve healthcare accessibility and efficiency in Saudi Arabia. These enhancements are vital for aligning telehealth services with Saudi Arabia's healthcare objectives under Saudi Vision 2030.

Identifying and Overcoming the Barriers to Virtual Electromyography Assessments: A Scoping Review

Introduction: Electromyography (EMG) assessments have been conducted virtually more frequently in recent years, leading researchers to explore the barriers to EMG assessments in a telehealth setting and how to overcome them. Methods: A scoping review was conducted according to the methodology described by Arksey and O'Malley. A comprehensive search using controlled vocabulary and keywords for two concepts, EMG and telehealth, was conducted using Medline and EMBASE on February 7, 2022. Two independent reviewers screened titles, abstracts, and full-text articles. Two reviewers also extracted the data and described the findings in a descriptive analysis. Results: A total of 248 articles were screened during the abstract and title review, of which 64 full texts were screened for eligibility. Of these, 15 publications met the inclusion criteria. Most articles were published in 2018 or later (66.7%). The most frequently mentioned barrier to conducting a virtual EMG assessment was poor data and signal transmission (53.3%). Another frequently mentioned barrier was poor patient usability (33.3%). Solutions most frequently reported related to patient usability (33.3%). These included interactive instructions and video chat to monitor and provide the patient with technical support. Conclusion: The last 4 years have seen an increase in articles published on EMGs' use in telehealth to monitor or diagnose patients. Further research is required to determine if the proposed solutions have improved clinical outcomes for the patient.

The determinants of public acceptance of telemedicine apps: an innovation diffusion perspective

With the rapid advancement of information technology, telemedicine apps have gradually become an indispensable tool for providing patients with more convenient, efficient, and accessible healthcare services. However, the successful implementation of these apps largely depends on widespread acceptance among the public. To thoroughly investigate the factors influencing the public's acceptance of these apps and the relationships between these factors, this study developed a theoretical model based on the Diffusion of Innovation theory and the Theory of Perceived Value. To validate this model, we conducted a survey of 387 residents in Beijing, China, and employed structural equation modeling to analyze the collected data. The research findings indicate that attributes of innovation diffusion, including relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability, significantly and positively influence the public's perceived value. Particularly noteworthy is that perceived value partially mediates the relationship between innovation attributes and public acceptance, emphasizing the crucial role of perceived value in the public decision-making process. This study employed a theory-driven approach to elucidate the acceptance of telemedicine apps and offers fresh insights into the existing literature. By integrating the research paradigms of innovation diffusion and customer perceived value, we provide a coherent explanation of how individual cognitive processes lead to acceptance behavior. In summary, this research enriches the existing theoretical studies on the acceptance of telemedicine apps and holds positive implications for healthcare practice.

Developing Usability Guidelines for mHealth Applications (UGmHA)

Mobile health (mHealth) is a branch of electronic health (eHealth) technology that provides healthcare services using smartphones and wearable devices. However, most mHealth applications were developed without applying mHealth specialized usability guidelines. Although many researchers have used various guidelines to design and evaluate mHealth applications, these guidelines have certain limitations. First, some of them are general guidelines. Second, others are specified for mHealth applications; however, they only cover a few features of mHealth applications. Third, some of them did not consider accessibility needs for the elderly and people with special needs. Therefore, this paper proposes a new set of usability guidelines for mHealth applications (UGmHA) based on Quinones et al.’s formal methodology, which consists of seven stages starting from the Exploratory stage and ending with the Refining stage. What distinguishes these proposed guidelines is that they are easy to follow, consider the feature of accessibility for the elderly and people with special needs and cover different features of mHealth applications. In order to validate UGmHA, an experiment was conducted on two applications in Saudi Arabia using UGmHA versus other well-known usability guidelines to discover usability issues. The experimental results show that the UGmHA discovered more usability issues than did the other guidelines.

Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Technology Acceptance and Its Applications

Technological innovation has become an integral aspect of our daily life, such as wearable and information technology, virtual reality and the Internet of Things which have contributed to transforming healthcare business and operations. Patients will now have a broader range and more mindful healthcare choices and experience a new era of healthcare with a patient-centric culture. Digital transformation determines personal and institutional health care. This paper aims to analyse the changes taking place in the field of healthcare due to digital transformation. For this purpose, a systematic bibliographic review is performed, utilising Scopus, Science Direct and PubMed databases from 2008 to 2021. Our methodology is based on the approach by Wester and Watson, which classify the related articles based on a concept-centric method and an ad hoc classification system which identify the categories used to describe areas of literature. The search was made during August 2022 and identified 5847 papers, of which 321 fulfilled the inclusion criteria for further process. Finally, by removing and adding additional studies, we ended with 287 articles grouped into five themes: information technology in health, the educational impact of e-health, the acceptance of e-health, telemedicine and security issues.

Healthcare Providers’ Perception and Barriers Concerning the Use of Telehealth Applications in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Telehealth services are widely used in Saudi Arabia. Despite this, neither the use rate nor the attitudes, perceptions, and barriers concerning telehealth applications have been evaluated nationally from the perspective of healthcare providers (HCPs). Aim: This study aims to explore the use rate of telehealth, as well as the attitudes, perceptions, and barriers concerning telehealth use in Saudi Arabia from the perspective of HCPs. Methods and design: A cross-sectional survey was conducted and distributed to all HCPs between 16 November 2021 and 16 March 2022, through an online platform (Survey Monkey). Results: Overall, 1034 HCPs completed the online survey, of which 65.0% (n = 677) were male. Physicians accounted for 22.34%, while nurses and respiratory therapists accounted for 22.34% and 21.47%, respectively. Only 491 HCPs (47%) have used telehealth applications, the majority for less than a year (21.47%) or from one to three years (14.51%). Around 44% of HCPs perceived telehealth as being useful in quality and care delivery. Around 43% of HCPs felt comfortable using telehealth, and 45.45% perceived telehealth as being useful for patients with transportation difficulties. Additionally, 38% believed that telehealth provides a confidential way of protecting patients’ information, and 36% would like to receive more training in telehealth. Speech-language therapists and public health professionals were the highest HCP users (98% and 95%, respectively), while general physicians and dentists were the lowest users (44% and 55%, respectively). Lack of time or a busy schedule was the most common barrier to not using telehealth among all HCPs (38%). Conclusion: The use of telehealth was perceived as being positive as well as valuable and confidential in monitoring and providing care. However, challenges such as the lack of time or a busy schedule impeded the use of telehealth among HCPs in Saudi Arabia.

Users' satisfaction levels about mHealth applications in post-Covid-19 times in Saudi Arabia

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the users’ satisfaction levels about mHealth applications and their intentions to use them in future (in post-Covid-19 times) in Saudi Arabia.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey design was adopted in this study. The mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ)22 was used in this study. An online version of the survey was created using Google Surveys, and a link for the survey was generated. As the objective of this study is to assess the users’ satisfaction levels about mHealth applications and their intentions to use them in future (in post-Covid-19 times) in Saudi Arabia, all individuals who used or using mHealth applications will be included in this study. At the end of the survey time period, 318 responses were received.

Results

Items including ’easy to learn using the app’ (mean rating = 3.9), ’easy to find information on the application’(mean rating = 3.9), ’interface of the app’ (mean rating = 3.8) were rated to be highly effective by the participants.). However, ability to recover from mistakes while using the applications (mean rating = 2.9), inconsistency in navigation (mean rating = 2.9), and lack of all necessary functions (mean rating = 2.3) were few issues identified. No statistically significant difference of opinions was observed in relation to all sub-scales of usability factor.

Conclusion

Although the satisfaction levels are good with respect to mHealth applications, the sudden rise in the mHealth users can be partly linked to the several psychological issues such as anxiety and depression among people and also because of restricted access during the pandemic.

The role of the COVID-19 pandemic in expediting digital health-care transformation: Saudi Arabia's experience

A comprehensive literature review of Research engines was conducted up to March 2022 to retrieve the articles. We considered all published data, press briefings, and announcements by the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia (MOH). The search included both sources in English and Arabic. Thus, this paper aims to give a comprehensive overview of the evolution and role of telemedicine and E-health represented in multiple informatics mobile applications during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia. As a component of its subjective drives, the MOH has launched and developed a total of 12 mobile applications from 2012 to 2019, three apps of which were developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. My health "Sehhaty" was the cornerstone of telemedicine services provided by the MOH in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtually booked physician appointments exceeded 3.8 million. Appointment "Mawid" app number of users sprinted from 4 million to 25 million users and the number of appointments booked in the same app went from 8 million to 100 million appointments in pre-COVID-19 compared to the post-COVID-19 period. Furthermore, the Health 937 hotline numbers grew to 24.6 million calls. The Health "Seha" app provided 2 million remote medical consultations with an almost 8-fold increase compared to pre-COVID-19 times.