Improving Medication Information Presentation Through Interactive Visualization in Mobile Apps: Human Factors Design

Background Despite the detailed patient package inserts (PPIs) with prescription drugs that communicate crucial information about safety, there is a critical gap between patient understanding and the knowledge presented. As a result, patients may suffer from adverse events. We propose using human factors design methodologies such as hierarchical task analysis (HTA) and interactive visualization to bridge this gap. We hypothesize that an innovative mobile app employing human factors design with an interactive visualization can deliver PPI information aligned with patients’ information processing heuristics. Such an app may help patients gain an improved overall knowledge of medications. Objective The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of designing an interactive visualization-based mobile app using an HTA approach through a mobile prototype. Methods Two pharmacists constructed the HTA for the drug risperidone. Later, the specific requirements of the design were translated using infographics. We transferred the wireframes of the prototype into an interactive user interface. Finally, a usability evaluation of the mobile health app was conducted. Results A mobile app prototype using HTA and infographics was successfully created. We reiterated the design based on the specific recommendations from the usability evaluations. Conclusions Using HTA methodology, we successfully created a mobile prototype for delivering PPI on the drug risperidone to patients. The hierarchical goals and subgoals were translated into a mobile prototype.

Improving Medication Information Presentation Through Interactive Visualization in Mobile Apps: Human Factors Design (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Despite the detailed patient package inserts (PPIs) with prescription drugs that communicate crucial information about safety, there is a critical gap between patient understanding and the knowledge presented. As a result, patients may suffer from adverse events. We propose using human factors design methodologies such as hierarchical task analysis (HTA) and interactive visualization to bridge this gap. We hypothesize that an innovative mobile app employing human factors design with an interactive visualization can deliver PPI information aligned with patients’ information processing heuristics. Such an app may help patients gain an improved overall knowledge of medications. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of designing an interactive visualization-based mobile app using an HTA approach through a mobile prototype. METHODS Two pharmacists constructed the HTA for the drug risperidone. Later, the specific requirements of the design were translated using infographics. We transferred the wireframes of the prototype into an interactive user interface. Finally, a usability evaluation of the mobile health app was conducted. RESULTS A mobile app prototype using HTA and infographics was successfully created. We reiterated the design based on the specific recommendations from the usability evaluations. CONCLUSIONS Using HTA methodology, we successfully created a mobile prototype for delivering PPI on the drug risperidone to patients. The hierarchical goals and subgoals were translated into a mobile prototype.

Conventional Implicature in Patient Package Inserts

<p>The study aims to investigate the legal aspects and the informative aspects, especially the conventional implicature of patient package inserts. Eighty five patient package inserts were collected from licensed drugstores in Surakarta and the surroundings from February 1, 2013 to February 15, 2013 to be qualitative content analyzed. It was found that out of eighty five inserts, seventy four (87 percents) gave explanation in Indonesian only; eight package inserts (9.4 percents) had English and Indonesian translations; and three (3.6 percents) had English texts only. It seems that most of the pharmaceutical companies do not think original leaflets important for drug users or public readers. The companies focus more on legal aspects than on good benefit that might be gained by attaching the original ones. Without original brochures, it is not known whether the translation meet the Readability Guideline expectations: faithful translation, understandable and patient-friendly. Eight package brochures having English and Indonesian translation were discussed. Three of them contained sentences with inference markers of conventional implicature. The inference markers were: even, therefore and but; their conventional implicature were explained by way of the drugs mechanisms and metabolisms in human body. The scarcity of conventional implicature indicated by only three words (even, therefore and but) or three sentences among about eight times five hundred words or around four hundred sentences could be an indication of appreciable efforts of the English writers to meet understandable and patient-friendly information. They seemed to avoid conventional implicature that might be understood differently by many drug users or public readers.</p><p> </p><p><br />Key words: legal and informative aspects, readability, patient-friendly.</p>