Design and evaluation of collaborative decision-making application for patient care in the emergency department

Abstract

Abstract Background and Aims: Collaboration has become a crucial element of effective healthcare delivery in the Emergency Department. In high-pressure environments, healthcare providers can prioritize patients by consulting with other specialists to gain diverse perspectives and arrive at a shared understanding of the best course of action. The study aims to improve collaboration and communication among healthcare providers in emergency departments by introducing Collaborative Decision Making (CDM), a new decision-making application to provide effective information exchange, inter-professional collaboration, and collaborative decision. Methods: The present applied research study was conducted between April 1st, 2021, and May 31st, 2023 at Imam Reza Hospital of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The study was conducted in three phases: exploration, development, and evaluation, utilizing modern technologies such as Flutter and Node.js to design and program the application. The effectiveness of the system was evaluated using established measures, including the think-aloud protocol, User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ), and Likert-scale questionnaires developed by Ghadri et al. Results: All physicians rated the use of the system for easy access to the opinions of other experts as very good. Eighty-five percent of physicians gave very good ratings to the system's ease of use, citing its appearance, and comprehensive coverage of necessary information. The results indicate that physicians received the CDM app well, rating it highly in terms of quality, motivation for use, ease of access to information and knowledge sharing, and usefulness of the system compared to time spent using it. No negative feedback was reported. Conclusion: The study suggests that introducing Information and Communication Technology(ICTs) such as medical apps can improve healthcare delivery by streamlining patient care, promoting effective teamwork, and reducing medical errors and treatment delays. Keywords: collaboration, smartphone, emergency department, informatics, messaging app