Design Recommendations towards Developing a Smartphone-Based Point-of-Care Tool for Rural Bangladeshi Users

Abstract

Smartphone enhances healthcare support for everyone, from local to remote patients. Recent advancements in smartphone sensors redefine their usage and the prospect of remote point-of-care tools (e.g., blood diagnostic devices), especially for low-resource settings. This paper studies the sufferings of rural people due to the limited healthcare facilities and figures out the implications. The proliferation of smartphone users suggests converting many smartphones into point-of-care diagnosis devices would be a life-saving decision. Previous studies showed smartphone’s built-in camera captures physiological features (e.g., hemoglobin) from fingertip videos captured under different lights. So, we created a mobile application and attachments (light sources) to record fingertip videos for hemoglobin level calculation. Then we collected feedback on how the rural users interacted with the application. Finally, we applied qualitative and quantitative analysis to investigate their answers. Their invaluable feedback reflected the implications of various aspects of a smartphone-based point-of-care tool. The findings unveil how rural-area people can receive a smartphone's blood diagnostic services. Our results will facilitate mobile health application designers and developers to build a smartphone-based point-of-care tool for any rural area people.