The purpose of this investigation was to identify and validate the information content and functional capabilities of a smartphone-based application for the self-care of patients with urinary tract stones. The program’s information items and basic capabilities were first established by researching studies and urology-oriented publications, analyzing 214 medical records, and consulting with professionals. Researcher-made a questionnaire was then built using this data. After receiving expert feedback on whether or not the questionnaire was valid and reliable, it was sent to a wide range of participants. Finally, the questionnaire answers were analyzed to gain insight into the application’s most prominent data items, content, and functional capabilities.
A total of 101 patients with Urinary Stone Diseases (USD), 32 urologists/nephrologists, 11 nurses, and 6 other specialists participated in the study. After reviewing the completed survey, 21 data points and 9 capabilities were chosen as being most relevant to the app’s design. The design of the application relied heavily on information pertaining to the following: etiology, clinical presentation, laboratory findings, treatments, environmental factors in therapy, nutritional aspects of treatment and stone development, and diagnostic procedures. Medication and fluid intake reminders, laboratory test reminders, radiography and periodic checkup reminders, surgery history, and simple access to medical institutions for information are only some of the app’s useful features. Patients gave an average score of 75.07 on informational aspects, doctors gave a score of 65.09, and nurses gave a score of 80.09.
In addition, the average rating of the app’s features was 31.89 out of 100 from the patients’ point of view, 30.37 from the doctors’, and 35.09 from the nurses’. There was a statistically significant (P<0.05) difference between the 2 groups’ mean scores on the variables as mentioned above. This research presents informational and functional requirements for developing a mobile app to aid in the management of disease in patients with urinary tract stones.
Source: bmcurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12894-022-01127-z
