How to interact: Evaluating the interface between mobile healthcare systems and the monitoring of blood sugar and blood pressure

The availability of mobile healthcare systems is increasing in demand. The world's population today is faced with many health challenges all of which require the patient to be more empowered and monitor his own health. This research focuses on some of the mobile healthcare systems available for the monitoring of two chronic non-communicable diseases: diabetes and hypertension. The study investigates the usability of a new interface that is made available through existing healthcare monitors, one based on Bluetooth transmission. Seven Bluetooth-enabled systems used for measuring and recording blood sugar and blood pressure were selected and evaluated based on a set of user-centered heuristics. This paper focuses on the results of this evaluation. Two systems out of these were then chosen to undergo live user trials with a mobile application called myDR (short for my daily record). The objective of the trials was to confirm that the myDR integrated self-monitoring system was a more efficient and satisfactory method for the measurement and recording of blood sugar and blood pressure; therefore leading to faster adoption and sustainability. The results of the study indicate that the integrated system is more efficient and the preferred interface of the target user group, and that Bluetooth technology is an ideal candidate as the communications protocol for mobile healthcare applications.