Mobile App Development – Don’t Overlook the Obvious

Tuesday 9 October 2012, Amsterdam

Analysts often attend live and virtual industry events.  This week, analyst Amy von Kaenel of Technology Coast Consulting shares a useful piece of practical wisdom she uncovered at “Dreamforce,” an annual conference.

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center was presenting a session entitled “IT and the Bleeding Edge of Healthcare” in a track themed “Unusual Thinkers.”  The session addressed many medical IT topics, including mobile apps.  During the Q&A portion an exasperated physician from the Midwest reminded the IT-focused speakers, a CMIO and Medical Director of IT at UCSF, to be mindful of end users and how emerging technology can sometimes impede physicians’ ability to serve their patients.  This individual shared a common scenario, “I used to circle an item on a piece of paper to order an X-ray.  Now I have to go through 15 screens.  I don’t have that kind of time.”  Time, this physician emphasized, is what patients need from their doctors.

Fortunately, primary research from a recent study entitled “Transforming Healthcare with mHealth Solutions” revealed that mHealth solutions have successfully streamlined physicians’ and other healthcare workers’ workflows and processes.  With mHealth an important aspect of ROI is the gift of time that care providers can share with their patients.  The mHealth solutions uncovered through primary research revealed that successfully enabled efficiency had a common-sense approach to development.  “Best Practice” mHealth development begins with the following:

• Ask “Who?” and “Why?”:  Organizations caught up in the euphoria of game-changing mobile technology should pause long enough to ask some very basic questions.  Mobility is less about creating new functionality and more about artfully extending desired functionality to end users – wherever they may be.  The first steps must include defining these end users, what functionality they desire and the high-level objectives the organization wishes to achieve.
• Engage End-users:  Mobile product and marketing managers should become educated about the daily challenges of identified future mHealth users.  Key inputs to this learning process should include the intangible aspects of mobile users’ jobs, such as processes, compliance, mobile device policies and patient interaction.  Future mobility users should have input to application design and be able to evaluate the technology they will be using as development progresses.
• Evaluate Workflow:   Research reveals that the “stickiest” mHealth solutions closely track end-users’ natural workflow or information consumption habits.  Some mHealth developers report that physicians design workflows for their contemporaries, for example.  Workflow evaluation can be translated into basic features and functionality, which can subsequently influence form factor.