title: mPneumonia: Development of an Innovative mHealth Application for Diagnosing and Treating Childhood Pneumonia and Other Childhood Illnesses in Low-Resource Settings.
abstract: Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death in children worldwide. Each year, pneumonia kills an estimated 935,000 children under five years of age, with most of these deaths occurring in developing countries. The current approach for pneumonia diagnosis in low-resource settings--using the World Health Organization Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) paper-based protocols and relying on a health care provider's ability to manually count respiratory rate--has proven inadequate. Furthermore, hypoxemia--a diagnostic indicator of the presence and severity of pneumonia often associated with an increased risk of death--is not assessed because pulse oximetry is frequently not available in low-resource settings. In an effort to address childhood pneumonia mortality and improve frontline health care providers' ability to diagnose, classify, and manage pneumonia and other childhood illnesses, PATH collaborated with the University of Washington to develop "mPneumonia," an innovative mobile health application using an Android tablet. mPneumonia integrates a digital version of the IMCI algorithm with a software-based breath counter and a pediatric pulse oximeter. We conducted a design-stage usability field test of mPneumonia in Ghana, with the goal of creating a user-friendly diagnostic and management tool for childhood pneumonia and other childhood illnesses that would improve diagnostic accuracy and facilitate adherence by health care providers to established guidelines in low-resource settings. The results of the field test provided valuable information for understanding the usability and acceptability of mPneumonia among health care providers, and identifying approaches to iterate and improve. This critical feedback helped ascertain the common failure modes related to the user interface design, navigation, and accessibility of mPneumonia and the modifications required to improve user experience and create a tool aimed at decreasing mortality from pneumonia and other childhood illnesses in low-resource settings.
authors.affiliation: PATH, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Amy Sarah
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Ginsburg
authors.affiliation: PATH, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jaclyn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Delarosa
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Waylon
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Brunette
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Shahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Levari
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Mitch
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sundt
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Clarice
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.affiliation: Kintampo Health Research Centre, Kintampo, Ghana.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tawiah Agyemang
authors.affiliation: Kintampo Health Research Centre, Kintampo, Ghana.
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Newton
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Borriello
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D063731:Mobile Applications; D010092:Oximetry / Q000379:methods; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics