Designing an mHealth App for Stroke Rehabilitation in Indonesia: Mixed Methods Design Science Research Study.
Sabrina Atha Shania, Putu Wuri Handayani, Kamila Alifia Imanuddin
A stroke rehabilitation app prototype in Indonesia scored 'Good' on usability (SUS 71.83) and identified home-visit, activity-target, and progress-monitoring features as key gaps.
No clinical outcomes were measured — this is a design study, not evidence the app improves recovery.
Key findings
1The app prototype received an average System Usability Scale score of 71.83, rated 'Good,' from 146 respondents including patients, caregivers, and health care workers.
2Features adapted to the Indonesian context included home-visit services, rehabilitation training programs, gamification (pop-up quizzes), rehabilitation progress monitoring, activity targets, and therapy reports — addressing gaps such as lack of objective home-care evidence and low patient motivation.
3A newly identified problem was decreased patient ability to undergo hospital rehabilitation due to age, addressed by adding a home-visit feature rarely found in existing stroke rehabilitation apps.
Still to come
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
No clinical outcomes were measured at any point — the study evaluated app usability, not whether the app improves stroke recovery in any domain. Most quantitative respondents were young adult caregivers (73 of 146 SUS respondents aged 26–35), not the older stroke patients the app is intended for, so the usability scores may not reflect the target population's experience. Limited digital literacy among participants made it difficult for them to understand or use certain features independently. Technical barriers (internet access, device availability, operating system compatibility, storage) were acknowledged but not resolved. The app is a prototype that has not been deployed, and no longitudinal follow-up on adherence or outcomes was conducted. The study was conducted at a single hospital in Indonesia; generalisability to other settings is untested.
Declared interests
Funded by the Faculty of Computer Science, University of Indonesia (internal research grant, 2026). No conflicts of interest declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 'Good' usability score or the positive user feedback as evidence that this app improves stroke rehabilitation outcomes. No patient was treated with the app and no clinical outcome — mobility, speech, swallowing, daily living — was measured. The study tells you the interface was easy to use; it tells you nothing about whether using it would help a patient recover.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →