Usability and eHealth Literacy Evaluation of a Mobile Health Application Prototype to Track Diagnostic Imaging Examinations

In the absence of a pan-Canadian electronic health record, unnecessary duplicate diagnostic imaging (DI) examinations are sometimes ordered when a physician is not aware of prior DI or prior DI is not available. Research suggests that physicians may ask their patient to recall their DI history; however, patient recall of DI can be unreliable. As a potential solution, a patient-facing mobile health application (app) prototype was developed for users to record their DI. The app was designed to be usable and inclusive to users of all health literacy levels. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how eHealth literacy and usability heuristics can be used during the design phases of app development.