Elaboração e desenvolvimento de aplicativo para dispositivos móveis para prevenção do pé diabético

Abstract

In 2012, more than 371 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes and the numbers progressively increase in all countries, reaching 552 million in 2030. Its complications are among the leading causes of disability, reduced quality of life and death and cause great economic impact to health services. It is noteworthy diabetic neuropathy and its main complication, diabetic foot, as responsible for about 50 to 75% of lower limb amputations. The prevention of foot ulcers and amputations may reduce the frequency and duration of hospitalization by 50% necessitating careful assessment of health status of the patient with diabetes. However, it appears that evaluation for prevention of diabetic foot is not fully incorporated in the health professionals care to diabetic patients. In this context, it is important to develop and implement strategies that make more efficient the diabetic foot clinical management. This descriptive study of experimental development aimed to develop a prototype application for prevention of diabetic foot which would help support the care and continuing education of health professionals. Therefore, it was developed in two phases: prototype application development for mobile devices and pretest. The software engineering methodology chosen for the prototype development was the Extreme Programming. The application was developed for the Android platform using the Java language and a complete SDK kit. Module consisted of registration of health professionals, heath clinic and diabetic foot management module and module synchronization with the central server. In the pre-test criteria were evaluated ergonomics and usability and raised issues related to the use of technology in risk assessment of the diabetic foot. The application was called "Foot at Risk" and were created 46 canvases that made up an algorithm for diabetic foot risk assessment. Professionals evaluation about ergonomics and usability was positive, in which "partially agree" and "strongly agree" were the results in items of assessment criteria. However, the extension of consultation time with application test was reported as complicating its use. Given the above results, the incorporation of new technologies in health care was considered possible, facilitate and expedite the care of diabetic patients. Furthermore, they can be a vehicle for permanent education and clinical decision support. We highlight the need for further evaluation of the prototype in order to make it an instrument to be validated and used in the prevention of diabetic foot