Design and Usability Evaluation of a Smartphone Application for Postoperative Self-Management in Breast Cancer Patients.

INTRODUCTION

Postoperative care is essential for breast cancer patients due to the challenges of managing physical and psychological symptoms. With the rise of digital health technologies, smartphone applications have emerged as valuable tools for facilitating self-management in this patient population.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to design, develop, and evaluate the usability of a smartphone application for postoperative self-management in breast cancer patients.

METHODS

This applied-developmental study was conducted in three phases: determining and confirming the functional requirements and educational needs of the application, designing and developing the initial application prototype, and evaluating its usability through heuristic evaluation and user testing with 30 breast cancer patients.

RESULTS

The developed application, PostSurgCare, included features such as educational resources, medication and medical appointment reminders, notetaking functions, and alert notifications. Heuristic evaluation identified primarily minor issues, with an average severity score of 1.56 (out of 4). The usability assessment using the mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ) resulted in an average score of 5.91 (out of 7), indicating high user acceptance.

CONCLUSION

The PostSurgCare application offers a tool to support postoperative self-management in breast cancer patients by providing educational and management resources.