An App to Identify Radiation Pneumonitis - a Pre-Study in Healthy Volunteers

Resumen breve

Radiation pneumonitis is a possible side effect of radiotherapy for lung cancer. Since it often occurs only several weeks following radiotherapy, the corresponding symptoms may not be associated with previous administered radiotherapy. As a consequence, pneumonitis may be diagnosed very late or even be missed. Based on the findings of two prospective trials, a mobile application (PneumoCheck) has been developed, which can be used by the patients at home. This app may contribute to an earlier detection of radiation pneumonitis. Before this app can be tested in patients, its usability needs to be evaluated by healthy volunteers. In the present prospective study, 30 healthy volunteers test and rate the usability of the app. The healthy volunteers have to download the PneumoCheck app, which has been designed by the Luebeck based company Nextlabel Offene Handelsgesellschaft (OHG). After receiving the link for the download of the app from Nextlabel OHG by e-mail, the participants are asked to test the app and complete a questionnaire. They are asked to affirm or negate ten statements in three sections (download and installation, navigation, and content/functions) regarding the usability of the app. The satisfaction rate represents the rate of participants who affirmed a statement. If this rate was \<60%, the app was rated as not being useful. If the rate was between ≥60% but \<80%, the app was regarded useful but required further optimization regarding the corresponding section. In addition, iPhone and Android users are compared with respect to the satisfaction rates (Fisher's exact tests).