Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
JMIR Nurs. 2024 Jul 19;7:e56585. doi: 10.2196/56585.
eHealth interventions are becoming a part of standard care, with software solutions increasingly created for patients and health care providers. Testing of eHealth software is important to ensure that the software realizes its goals. Software testing, which is comprised of alpha and beta testing, is critical to establish the effectiveness and usability of the software. In this viewpoint, we explore existing practices for testing software in health care settings. We scanned the literature using search terms related to eHealth software testing (eg, "health alpha testing," "eHealth testing," and "health app usability") to identify practices for testing eHealth software. We could not identify a single standard framework for software testing in health care settings; some articles reported frameworks, while others reported none. In addition, some authors misidentified alpha testing as beta testing and vice versa. There were several different objectives (ie, testing for safety, reliability, or usability) and methods of testing (eg, questionnaires, interviews) reported. Implementation of an iterative strategy in testing can introduce flexible and rapid changes when developing eHealth software. Further investigation into the best approach for software testing in health care settings would aid the development of effective and useful eHealth software, particularly for novice eHealth software developers.
电子健康干预措施正在成为标准护理的一部分，越来越多的软件解决方案正被开发用于患者和医疗保健提供者。测试电子健康软件对于确保软件实现其目标非常重要。软件测试由 alpha 和 beta 测试组成，对于确定软件的有效性和可用性至关重要。在这个观点中，我们探讨了在医疗保健环境中测试软件的现有实践。我们使用与电子健康软件测试相关的搜索词（例如“健康 alpha 测试”、“电子健康测试”和“健康应用程序可用性”）扫描文献，以确定测试电子健康软件的实践。我们无法在医疗保健环境中确定一个单一的软件测试标准框架；有些文章报告了框架，而有些则没有。此外，一些作者错误地将 alpha 测试识别为 beta 测试，反之亦然。报告了几种不同的测试目标（即测试安全性、可靠性或可用性）和测试方法（例如，问卷、访谈）。在测试中实施迭代策略可以在开发电子健康软件时引入灵活和快速的更改。进一步研究医疗保健环境中软件测试的最佳方法将有助于开发有效和有用的电子健康软件，特别是对于新手电子健康软件开发者。
