A Novel “Well Baby Clinic Service” Mobile Application: User Requirement Assessment and App Development
Authors: Ali Noha Magdi , Ez-Elarab Hanan Said , Momen Mohamed Abdel Maguid Tolba , Eletriby Sherif Said Ali , Shehata Isis Magdy Mosaad 
Published: July 2024

Background

Utilization of under 5 year old child health care services in Egypt is considered low, the highest proportion of well-baby visits is mainly for immunization in the first two years of age. Parents may rely upon the internet and mobile applications (apps) for support in handling day to day parenting situations. mHealth (Mobile Health) interventions have the potential to be a useful and low-cost way to disseminate information about proper nutrition, can be used to monitor children’s growth using the official charts of World Health Organization, also can help in accessing vaccine-related information and recommended immunization schedules.

Objectives

To assess needs and requirements for a new comprehensive well-baby clinic mobile app. Also, to develop a mobile app prototype covering all well baby clinic service components which are: Physical growth, Developmental milestones, Immunizations, Nutrition and Safety & emergency measures.

Methods

This work is done over two phases. In Exploratory phase, we assessed the need for the new app by performing bibliographic review of previous mHealth interventions in child-care field, market search of the available related apps and an online survey to assess the need and expectations of the new app. In preparatory phase, we developed the novel well baby clinic app that constituted all well baby clinic services for children’s health monitoring which are: Physical growth, Developmental milestones, Immunizations, Nutrition and Safety & emergency measures relying on evidence-based information and honoring data safety.

Results

13 Arabic apps were downloaded and extracted for review. All of these apps (100%∼13/13) were in the form of written articles that offered no interactive features for parents. All offered general health education not tailored according to the status of the child. None of them were developed by a university or a certified health organization. Almost all of them (92.3%∼12/13) were commercial apps as they included ads. Our online survey on 374 mothers showed that almost all of them (97.5%) reported the need of a new app to regularly follow their children’s health. They also reported the need of nutrition, developmental milestones and physical growth services in the app. We developed “Sehhat Tefly” app constituting caregiver information, child sociodemographic characteristics and the 6 previously mentioned services, it also included health education videos and a conclusive report section.

Conclusion

After vigorous review of literature, market search and user requirement assessment, apps reviewed didn’t provide any comprehensive approach to well-baby clinic services on a scientific basis. Upon market requirement for child m-health, we developed “Sehhat Tefly” app. The full potential of this app is yet to be defined. Further studies are needed to assess accessibility and usability of the app and to explore difficulties and barriers faced by users in different services.