Objective: The TelePark project has the objective to develop a holistic telemedicine platform for patients with Parkinson’s disease. For a successful implementation, it is necessary to evaluate the usability and the user-experience for different components of this complex telemedical intervention. Our aim was to develop and implement a usability-testing-environment to assess and continuously improve telemedical solutions for Parkinson’s.

Background: Continuous access to care by trained movement disorder specialists improves the quality of life and the survival rate in patients with Parkinson’s disease (Willis et al. 2011; Cheng et al. 2007). Telemedical approaches are a promising method to provide care for a higher number of patients (Achey et al. 2014). The telemedical solution in TelePark combines app-based disease management and monitoring (self-questionnaires, electronic medication-management, structured patient-physician contacts, video-telemedicine, active-testing) with sensor-based monitoring systems (Motognosis Amsa®, PD Monitor®, gait-sensor-sock and smartphone).

Method: Usability and user experience are assessed in a mixed methods approach with patients and experts.
The patient-orientated protocol consists of: (1) Observation in a step-by-step task-specific application protocol, (2) System Usability Scale (SUS) and User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ), (3) A qualitative interview based on selected anchor questions.
The expert protocol consists of: (1) heuristic evaluation, (2) SUS and UEQ.
Patient recruitment scheme: All hospital-admitted patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease at the department of neurology at Dresden University Hospital are approached for study participation. Expert-based evaluation is carried out by at least four experts with different professional backgrounds (medicine, computer science, psychology, nursing).

Results: We provide interim results from the continuous usability assessments with patients and experts. Quantitative measures identify significant usability differences in the systems assessed. Qualitative patient and expert-based assessments facilitate the efficient identification of system components to be improved for better usability in a target-group-specific telemedicine scenario.

Conclusion: The described mixed-methods patient and expert-based usability evaluation approach is feasible and facilitates a dynamic goal-orientated development process.

References: Achey M, Aldred JL, Aljehani N, Bloem BR, Biglan KM, Chan P, u. a. The past, present, and future of telemedicine for Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord. Juni 2014;29(7):871–83. Cheng EM, Swarztrauber K, Siderowf AD, Eisa MS, Lee M, Vassar S, u. a. Association of specialist involvement and quality of care for Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders. 2007;22(4):515–22. Willis AW, Schootman M, Evanoff BA, Perlmutter JS, Racette BA. Neurologist care in Parkinson disease: a utilization, outcomes, and survival study. Neurology. 30. August 2011;77(9):851–7.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/usability-assessments-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-the-foundation-for-a-holistic-telemedical-solution-telepark/