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Introduction: One of the important challenges for physicians is the choice of the right antibiotics for various diseases. In this regard, a mobile application could be helpful. The main purpose of this study was to compare the quality of mobile applications designed for an antibiotic prescription to help physicians in choosing the right antibiotic. Method: In this study, English non-commercial apps from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store were searched using relevant keywords. The apps were selected and independently scored by an infectious disease specialist and a pharmacist using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). Kendall’s coefficient of concordance was used to assess inter-rater agreement. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to verify the normal distribution of the quantitative variables. Spearman's rank-order correlation was applied to determine the relationship between MARS scores and quantitative background variables and Mann-Whitney U tests for dichotomous variables. - Results: In the initial search until August 2022, 13 apps were eligible for evaluation. The MARS score obtained by applications without in-app advertisements (median: 3.9, IQR: 3.4-6.1) was significantly higher than applications containing advertisements (median: 2.9, IQR: 2.3-8.1) (P=0.029). In the objective domain of MARS, The highest mean domain score belonged to the engagement section (3.9±0.4) and the lowest mean domain score belonged to the functionality section (3.5±0.5). Conclusion: This study indicated that apps designed to help physicians prescribe antibiotics meet acceptable criteria. Considering objective scores of MARS, lower scores in the “engagement” section demonstrated that designers have paid less attention to this section in comparison to the “information quality” section.

Introduction: Today, the use of mobile applications to help self-care in patients with chronic diseases has increased. The objective of this study was to investigate the quality of Persian mobile applications related to patients with diabetes and hypertension. Method: This analytical study was conducted on all Persian mobile applications related to diabetes and hypertension in 2019. The mobile applications were searched in the Café Bazaar app store using the keywords such as “diabetes”, “blood sugar” and “blood pressure”. The APPLICATIONs Scoring System was used in this study. Two evaluators assessed the applications and in cases of disagreement a third evaluator was consulted. Results: In total, 179 Persian mobile applications were investigated. The mean and standard deviation of the quality of applications related to diabetes and hypertension based on the applied tools were 7.31±1.49 and 7.22±1.24 out of 16, respectively. More than 75% of these applications were comprehensive and less than 7% used authentic scientific resources. More than 80% of these applications were user-friendly and could work offline. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that most of the Persian mobile applications related to diabetes and hypertension were at a moderate level. Most of the mobile application developers took into account the interactive aspects of applications but paid less attention to providing a scientific content. Evaluating the quality of health-related mobile applications is recommended to app store managers before low-quality applications are available to public.

Introduction: Admission and medical record system (AMRS) is one of the most important subsystems of hospital information system, which is used by many users in admission, discharge, and health information management. Interface usability problems can reduce user speed, precision, and efficiency in user-system interaction. This study aimed to identify the usability problems of AMRS in a hospital information system. Method: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, five health information technology experts evaluated AMRS in a hospital information system using heuristic evaluation. Then, the system usability problems were categorized according to Nielsen's 10 usability principles and their severity were determined. Results: Totally, 62 unique usability problems were detected. The most frequent problems were related to "consistency and standards" (n=9) and ''recognition rather than recall" (n=9), and the least frequent ones was related to "flexibility and efficiency of use" (n=1). 59.7% of the identified problems were categorized as big and severe problems. The highest average severity of problems belonged to "system’s visibility" and "aesthetic and minimalist design", and the least average severity belonged to "error prevention". Conclusion: Using heuristic evaluation, a large number of usability problems in AMRS were identified. According to experts' opinions, most of the HIS interface problems were big and severe, and they need to be modified by designers and developers of these systems.