Pilot study on usability, usefulness, and perceived value of an Intelligent Health Assistant to provide simple, trustworthy, and relevant health information for patient empowerment

Background: The general public frequently turns to generic search engines for health information, which may yield inappropriate information, which are irrelevant to their needs and concerns. To address these issues, we have developed a prototype intelligent health assistant (IHA) computer application to help lay public users to search the World Wide Web (WWW) to find and understand the relevant health information needed to empower them to control of their health care. Objective: This study is a pilot analysis of the usability, usefulness, and perceived value of a prototype IHA in order to guide its future design and development. Methods: 13 senior Irish citizens and 34 healthcare workers were asked to assess an IHA prototype available at https://cohealth.ivi.ie/chape/. Usability was evaluated through the System Usability Scale (SUS). Usefulness and perceived value were evaluated with ad-hoc scales. Results: A SUS score of 69.4% and 66.1% was obtained for the senior citizens and healthcare workers, respectively. Knowing when to consult a doctor was considered the most useful IHA feature by 78% of respondents, and the least useful feature was identification of the most relevant scientific articles. The highest perceived the value of the IHA identified by 58% of respondents was advocating more for oneself, followed by what to do to take care of one’s health problems, to be in better control of one's own health and to have a technique to use when symptoms get worse. Conclusion: The albeit small number of participants considered the IHA would help them communicate better with health professionals and have more control over their health care