Development of an mHealth application to support vestibular rehabilitation

Background
Studies have shown that people suffering from vestibular disorders benefit from physical therapy where home-based exercises are an important part of the rehabilitation process. Patient compliance withhome-based interventions is often low however, resulting in a reduced or even complete lack of effect of the prescribed exercises. mHealth is a rapidly growing area which has proven useful in patient self-management. The use of mHealth applications for patients with vestibular dysfunctions may increase patient education and compliance with home-based exercises.

Methods/design
Participatory design is used to develop a mHealth application to support the rehabilitation of people with vestibular disorders. The study is conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a prototype is designed and developed. The development of the mHealth app is carried out as an iterative process in close collaboration with health professionals, patients, and IT designers. Methods used in this phase will be focus group interviews and workshops. In the second phase, the user experience will be assessed through a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews.

Discussion/perspective
To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to develop a mHealth application to support the rehabilitation of people suffering from vestibular disorders using a participatory design. This may have the potential to support patients and healthcare professionals within vestibular rehabilitation and thereby result in greater improvements within rehabilitation. This study will provide new knowledge about how new mHealth technologies can contribute to improved healthcare services by involving all stakeholders in the development process.