User-Centric Design Methodology for mHealth Apps: The PainApp Paradigm for Chronic Pain

The paper presents a user-centric methodology in order to design successful mobile health (mHealth) applications. In addition to the theoretical background, such an example is presented with an application targeting chronic pain. The pain domain was decided due to its significance in many aspects: its complexity, dispersion in the population, the financial burden it causes, etc. The paper presents a step-by-step plan in order to build mobile health applications. Participatory design and interdisciplinarity are only some of the critical issues towards the desired result. In the given example (development of the PainApp), a participatory design was followed with a team of seventeen stakeholders that drove the design and development phases. Three physicians, one behavioral scientist, three IT and UX experts, and ten patients collaborated together to develop the final solution. The several features implemented in the PainApp solution are presented in details. The application is threefold: it supports the management, reporting, and treatment effectiveness monitoring. The paper is giving details on the methodological approach while presenting insights on the actual plan and the steps followed for having a patient-centric solution. Key success factors and barriers to mobile health applications that support the need for such an approach are also presented