Design Principles in the Development of Digital Health Applications

Introduction

In traditional medical practice, healthcare professionals have always played active roles in the care of patients. Doctors tell their patients what is wrong and how to get better, while pharmacists dispense and counsel patients with regards to their medications. In addition, patients are usually given supplementary materials such as pamphlets as part of their education. However, the patients’ understanding of their medication therapies is limited to the time during each counseling session, and the frequency in which they re-visit the clinic for follow-up. Thus, their knowledge on their medications may be limited, particularly for those who are on their medications for the first time or if they are on complex regimens. The lack of knowledge or misinterpretation of information about the drug or its use can affect patients’ compliance to their medication, which may consequently lead to the patients suffering from drug-related problems (DRPs) such as under- or overdosing, or potential drug-drug, drug-food or drug-herb interactions (American Society of Hospital Pharmacists, 1993).

The roles of patients and healthcare professionals have evolved with the digital age. Internet and informatics technologies brought about by the cyber era have been critical in transforming the public’s attitudes towards healthcare and medicine. The advent of the World Wide Web has led to the creation of many web publishing platforms. Patients are becoming more well-informed about health-related and drug-related information over the internet. In recent years, the internet connectivity of mobile phones has also become popular. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for patients to search for online health-related information using their mobile phones. However, operational and technical problems experienced by internet users have led to the need to develop common standards for data, information and software applications for the World Wide Web (Internet Society; Jean-Guilhem). Through these standards, users are able to navigate through vast amounts of health-related information on cross-platform mobile browsers and interact with complex web documents through features such as buttons, tables, scroll lists and pop-up menus. The integration of interactive media technologies has further enhanced the communication and interaction among internet users. Users can now learn about health-related and medication management information and gain knowledge through a variety of digital media channels – including text, audio, video, graphics, images, animations and even games (Liaskos & Diomidus, 2002). For example, WarfarINT (Kevin Y. Yap et al., 2009) was a game that educated users about the different strengths of warfarin tablets (an anticoagulant), as well as its interaction with drugs, herbs and food. Similarly, Herbopolis (Ee, Yap, & Yap, 2018) was a mobile game that educated players on herbal medicines.