An mHealth Platform for Supporting Clinical Data Integration into Augmentative and Alternative Communication Service Delivery: User-Centered Design and Usability Evaluation

BACKGROUND: The recent trend of increasing health care costs in the United States is likely not sustainable. To make health care more economically sustainable, attention must be directed toward improving the quality while simultaneously reducing the cost of health care. One of the recommended approaches to provide better care at a lower cost is to develop high-quality data collection and reporting systems, which support health care professionals in making optimal clinical decisions based on solid, extensive evidence. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this project was to develop an integrated mobile health Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) platform consisting of an AAC mobile app and a Web-based clinician portal for supporting evidence-based clinical service delivery. METHODS: A questionnaire and interviews were used to collect clinicians’ ideas regarding what constitutes their desired “clinically relevant” data. In response, a Web-based portal was designed by combining mobile and Web technologies with an AAC intervention to create an integrated platform for supporting data collection, integration, and reporting. Finally, a usability study was conducted with health care professionals. RESULTS: A Web-based portal was created and integrated with a tablet-based AAC mobile app and data analysis procedures. In the usability study, all participants agreed that the integrated platform provided the ability to collect comprehensive clinical evidence, automatically analyze collected data in real time, and generate clinically relevant performance measures through an easily accessible Web-based portal. CONCLUSIONS: The integrated platform offers a better approach for clinical data reporting and analytics. Additionally, the platform streamlines the workflow of AAC clinical service delivery.