This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

Letters to the Editor (4) Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) (275) Personal Health Records, Patient-Accessible Electronic Health Records, Patient Portals (543) Clinical Information and Decision Making (1339) Electronic/Mobile Data Capture, Internet-based Survey & Research Methodology (792) Innovations and Technology in Cancer Care (405)

Published on in Vol 7 (2023)

Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/42153, first published .
Evaluating the Usability of Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Apps: Comment on a Symptom Management Platform for Outpatients With Advanced Cancer

Evaluating the Usability of Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Apps: Comment on a Symptom Management Platform for Outpatients With Advanced Cancer

Evaluating the Usability of Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Apps: Comment on a Symptom Management Platform for Outpatients With Advanced Cancer

Authors of this article:

Yu Haniuda1 Author Orcid Image ;   Michihiro Tsubaki2 Author Orcid Image ;   Yoshiyasu Ito3 Author Orcid Image
Article Authors Cited by Tweetations (2) Metrics

    Letter to the Editor

    1Department of Emergency Nursing, Kitasato University Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan

    2School of Nursing, Kitasato University, Kanagawa, Japan

    3College of Nursing Art and Science, University of Hyogo, Hyogo, Japan

    *all authors contributed equally

    Corresponding Author:

    Yu Haniuda, BSN

    Department of Emergency Nursing

    Kitasato University Hospital

    1-15-1 Kitasato

    Minami-ku, Sagamihara City

    Kanagawa, 252-0375

    Japan

    Phone: 81 42 778 8111

    Fax:81 42 778 9371

    Email: h.yuuuu.1994@gmail.com



    In the study “Implementing Symptom Management Follow-up Using an Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Platform in Outpatients With Advanced Cancer: Longitudinal Single-Center Prospective Study,” Tang et al [1] suggest that using an electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) platform for following up on symptom management in patients with advanced cancer can improve completion rates and decrease the number of dropouts.

    Tang et al [1] reported a high average compliance rate of 80.3% for all 8 out-of-hospital follow-up studies. Despite two reminders plus phone calls to patients who had not responded, 14 patients rejected participation in the follow-ups and 19 patients could not be contacted, resulting in about 20% of participants dropping out. According to a study by Lee et al [2], a decrease in engagement is related to the usefulness of an app for the continuous user. Chiu et al [3] also stated that user satisfaction is related to commitment. We believe that integrating these findings would lead to higher compliance in accepting the usability of an app and maintaining user satisfaction. Moreover, Lee et al [4] found that user satisfaction with utility is related to patient compliance with ePRO use. Therefore, user-friendly and attractive design is crucial for increasing satisfaction [5], especially for older adults. Apps should be equipped with not only new technologies but also interface designs that conform to the skills of older adults [5]. Therefore, we suggest evaluating the usefulness of an ePRO platform to determine user satisfaction, improve the user interface system, and reduce the dropout rate.

    Acknowledgments

    We would like to thank Enago for the English language editing.

    Conflicts of Interest

    None declared.

    Editorial Notice

    The corresponding author of “Implementing Symptom Management Follow-up Using an Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Platform in Outpatients With Advanced Cancer: Longitudinal Single-Center Prospective Study” did not provide a response to this letter.

    1. Tang L, He Y, Pang Y, Su Z, Li J, Zhang Y, et al. Implementing symptom management follow-up using an electronic patient-reported outcome platform in outpatients with advanced cancer: longitudinal single-center prospective study. JMIR Form Res. May 10, 2022;6(5):e21458. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]
    2. Lee K, Kwon H, Lee B, Lee G, Lee JH, Park YR, et al. Effect of self-monitoring on long-term patient engagement with mobile health applications. PLoS One. 2018;13(7):e0201166. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]
    3. Chiu W, Cho H, Chi C. Consumers' continuance intention to use fitness and health apps: an integration of the expectation–confirmation model and investment model. Inf Technol People. Jun 26, 2020;34(3):978-998. [CrossRef]
    4. Lee M, Kang D, Kim S, Lim J, Yoon J, Kim Y, et al. Who is more likely to adopt and comply with the electronic patient-reported outcome measure (ePROM) mobile application? A real-world study with cancer patients undergoing active treatment. Support Care Cancer. Jan 2022;30(1):659-668. [CrossRef] [Medline]
    5. Kim D, Lee Y, Oh J, Seo D, Lee K, Kim Y, et al. Effects of patient-generated health data: comparison of two versions of long-term mobile personal health record usage logs. Healthcare (Basel). Dec 28, 2021;10(1):53. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]

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    ePRO: electronic patient-reported outcome

    Edited by T Leung; This is a non–peer-reviewed article. submitted 24.08.22; accepted 27.07.23; published 07.08.23.

    Copyright

    ©Yu Haniuda, Michihiro Tsubaki, Yoshiyasu Ito. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 07.08.2023.

    This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Formative Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://formative.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.