Design of an mHealth application for winter mobility for mobility device users

Abstract

Background

There is limited evidence on the strategies, resources, and tools shown to improve winter mobility and community participation.

Objective

This paper describes a multifaceted approach taken to develop an mHealth application that provides information, resources, and strategies to facilitate winter mobility for mobility device users, service providers, community organisations, and researchers.

Methods

The study was conducted in three phases: (1) A scoping review of peer-reviewed and grey literature was completed to identify literature that reported on tools, strategies, resources, and recommendations used to promote winter mobility; (2) Online asynchronous focus groups were conducted to identify the type of content that mobility device users wanted to include in the web-based application; and (3) A prototype mHealth application was developed based on the findings from the previous phases. Using a rapid prototyping process that included stakeholder review through an online survey, four cycles of application design and development were undertaken.

Results

The scoping review identified 23 peer-reviewed studies and limited grey literature on winter mobility strategies, resources and recommendations. Twenty-four participants from across Canada engaged in one of five focus groups. Focus group analysis led to the development of the content categories for the mHealth application. The initial prototype application developed was reviewed by; 27 mobility device users, 16 health care providers, and seven consumer organisation representatives identified areas of strength and further refinement in regard to application design.

Conclusions

The approach used in this study provided a method to develop an application based on the ideas, needs, and interests of a variety of stakeholders. Once fully developed, the application has the potential to fill the gaps related to the lack of a unified collection of winter mobility strategies and resources, and open the dialogue on methods to improve winter participation among mobility device users.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• Despite winter conditions being a common challenge among mobility device users, there is an absence of an organised approach towards helping individuals manage their winter mobility needs.

• As the development and usage of mHealth applications continues to increase, it is valuable to use methods of designing applications based on the ideas, needs, and interests of a variety of stakeholders.

• Development of a framework for collating information on winter mobility strategies and resources is the first step towards launching an mHealth application.

Keywords:

• mHealth
• mobile app
• winter
• wheelchair
• participation

Acknowledgements

Patrick Faucher from the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation provided the media expert support for the rapid prototyping phase. Dale Stevenson provided valuable input into the online focus group implementation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Manitoba under a University Collaborative Research Grant [number 47138]. JFB is the Canada Research Chair in Rehabilitation Engineering Design. KMS is the Canada Research Chair in Integrated Knowledge Translation in Rehabilitation Sciences.