Integration of mCare and T2 Mood Tracker: Illustrating mHealth Usability Testing

Abstract

Military operational requirements potentially limit access to behavioral health care for service members. Although mobile technology solutions are increasingly viable, a secure method for mobile data exchange between patients and providers has yet to be adopted in military health care. Usability testing is the industry standard prior to implementing new technology. This paper demonstrates usability testing on a secure data exchange system between mCare and T2 Mood Tracker. Sixteen civilian providers in an outpatient behavioral health clinic tested the mCare Provider Portal, and nine uniformed proxy patients tested the Mood Tracker app. The System Usability Scale (SUS) was used as an outcome measure, which is composed of usability and learnability sub-factors. Proxy patients rated the mobile app as acceptable on the SUS, with average usability and above average learnability. Providers had less favorable views of the mCare Provider Portal, which they rated as marginal across all domains. Participants expressed enthusiasm about the potential of the provider web portal/patient smartphone app system, but had concerns about technical difficulties and ethical issues when exchanging data electronically. The results suggest a willingness to use technology to share data between patients and providers, but also a need for refinement of system usability before full-scale implementation.