BMT-App: development and validation of a mobile application for families of children/adolescents with cancer

Abstract

Objective: To develop and validate an informative technology for families of children/adolescents with cancer undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Methods: A methodological study grounded on the Patient-and Family-Centered Care Model and User-Centered Design, conducted in four stages: assessment of information needs; theoretical construction and development of the mobile application; content and semantic validation by a committee of experts and target population; usability evaluation by computer experts. The participants of the study were professionals and families of children with cancer. For content and semantic validation, an inter-rater agreement percentage of 80% and a Content Validity Index of 0.8 were established. For usability evaluation, Nielsen’s heuristics were used. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: After the information about the family’s needs was obtained from the published literature and field study, the application was developed and validated by experts. Agreement of 87%, and a content validity index of 0.87, were achieved with the expert group; 98% and 0.98, respectively, with the target population. With regard to usability, the level of simple severity was reached. The BMT-App mobile application contains 268 screens and 95 illustrations, addressing the family’s information needs before, during, and after transplantation. Conclusion: The methods used for development and validation were satisfactory to achieve the intended objectives. The application constructed is reliable, easy to use, useful, complete, and adequate. The study advances the proposition of a new informative strategy to promote empowerment of the family confronting chronic disease.