Focus group testing of a mobile app for pharmacogenetic-guided dosing.

Background: A common barrier to implementation of precision medicine is the lack of use of published clinical practice guidelines. Consequently, a user-friendly mechanism to easily adopt these guidelines is imperative.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of a prototype of a clinical decision support tool through a mobile application for pharmacogenetics.

Methodological Orientation: A case study on a patient requiring pharmacogenetic testing was provided to the participants. The participants were given up to 30 minutes to identify the correct dosing in the clinical decision support tool based on clinical evidence-based guidelines. Immediately after the utilization of the mobile app, focus group interviews were conducted to identify the perceptions of the tool, obstacles associated with the tool, and suggestions for improvement of the tool.

Sample: Focus group interviews with 23 nurse practitioners and nurse practitioner students were conducted. Field notes and audio recordings were taken.

Conclusions: Specific feedback for improvement in the font and size of text, color contrast, use of drug calculator, automatic input, and desire for further development of education portal were found within the data. The findings revealed useful feedback to adjust the prototype to improve the ease of use among nurse practitioners.

Implications For Practice: The revision of this mobile app will improve user friendliness to increase applicability within health care. The mobile app can be used for future research to identify improvements in patient outcomes after implementing this tool.