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Integration of mCare and T2 Mood Tracker: Illustrating mHealth Usability Testing

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Abstract

Military operational requirements potentially limit access to behavioral health care for service members. Although mobile technology solutions are increasingly viable, a secure method for mobile data exchange between patients and providers has yet to be adopted in military health care. Usability testing is the industry standard prior to implementing new technology. This paper demonstrates usability testing on a secure data exchange system between mCare and T2 Mood Tracker. Sixteen civilian providers in an outpatient behavioral health clinic tested the mCare Provider Portal, and nine uniformed proxy patients tested the Mood Tracker app. The System Usability Scale (SUS) was used as an outcome measure, which is composed of usability and learnability sub-factors. Proxy patients rated the mobile app as acceptable on the SUS, with average usability and above average learnability. Providers had less favorable views of the mCare Provider Portal, which they rated as marginal across all domains. Participants expressed enthusiasm about the potential of the provider web portal/patient smartphone app system, but had concerns about technical difficulties and ethical issues when exchanging data electronically. The results suggest a willingness to use technology to share data between patients and providers, but also a need for refinement of system usability before full-scale implementation.

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Funding

Dr. Kinn and Dr. Bush reports grants from Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) during the conduct of the study. This study was funded by the AMEDD Advanced Technology Initiative (AAMTI), through the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA, USA

    Sarah J. McCreight & Chauncy Brinton

  2. Connected Health Branch, Defense Health Agency, Tacoma, WA, USA

    Julie Kinn & Tim Hoyt

  3. Psychological Health Center of Excellence, Defense Health Agency, Tacoma, WA, USA

    Nigel Bush

Authors
  1. Sarah J. McCreight
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  2. Chauncy Brinton
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  3. Julie Kinn
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  4. Nigel Bush
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  5. Tim Hoyt
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Correspondence to Tim Hoyt.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This study was conducted under an exemption from the Institutional Review Board at Madigan Army Medical Center.

The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, or the Defense Health Agency.

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McCreight, S.J., Brinton, C., Kinn, J. et al. Integration of mCare and T2 Mood Tracker: Illustrating mHealth Usability Testing. J. technol. behav. sci. 4, 130–138 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-019-00087-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-019-00087-w

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