This study aimed to develop a Digital Urologic Home Care platform and evaluate its usability in supporting self-management among patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).
Participants-including patients and healthcare staff-were recruited through purposive sampling from a tertiary hospital in Guizhou Province. Investigators provided instructions on using the platform, which required participants to continuously record urination patterns, fluid intake, and symptom self-assessments, as well as access a disease information database and engage in remote communication. After a three-day trial, the platform's feasibility was assessed in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and subjective satisfaction. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted to capture participants' experiences and feedback, which informed subsequent revisions to the platform's content.
A total of 10 healthcare professionals and 50 patients (aged 58-72 years) participated in this study. The SUS questionnaire yielded a total score of 80.15 (SD = 3.60), and the Human-Machine Interface Usability Questionnaire produced a total score of 71.05 (SD = 3.32), indicating that participants were satisfied with the platform. Through semi-structured interviews, six themes were identified: enhancing knowledge and confidence, balancing professionalism and convenience, supporting preliminary self-assessment of the disease, high platform usability, recognition and recommendation, and suggestions for platform improvement.
After analyzing the study data, we successfully designed a home-based mobile management platform and confirmed its usability through data analysis. The platform enables automated tracking and analysis of fluid intake and urination patterns, supporting continuous interpretation and personalized feedback on patients' voiding data. It also facilitates patients' acquisition of preliminary self-assessment skills and-disease-related knowledge, while enabling remote communication between patients and clinicians. With further refinement and updates, the platform has the potential to support self-monitoring and home-based digital management for individuals with BPH.
Digital health. 2026 Mar 30*** epublish ***
Miaoqing Cai, Jianrong Zhang, Qiangqiang Cheng, Wen Zhou, Sudan Zeng, Jiamei Wang, Huan Wang, Beibei Yan, Wei Wang, Lei Liu, Mei Chen, Aobing Mei
Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guiyang, China., Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China., Department of Urology, Jinyang Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China., Shenzhen Yorktal Digital Medical Imaging Technology Co., Ltd, Shenzhen, China, China.