TY  - JOUR
AU  - Shaker, Ali Abbas
AU  - Austin, Stephen F
AU  - Jørgensen, Mie Sedoc
AU  - Sørensen, John Aasted
AU  - Bechmann, Henrik
AU  - Kinnerup, Henriette E
AU  - Petersen, Charlotte Juul
AU  - Olsen, Ragnar Klein
AU  - Simonsen, Erik
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/11/30
TI  - Facilitating In-House Mobile App Development Within Psychiatric Outpatient Services for Patients Diagnosed With Borderline Personality Disorder: Rapid Application Development Approach
JO  - JMIR Hum Factors
SP  - e46928
VL  - 10
KW  - software models
KW  - in-house development
KW  - psychiatric services
KW  - borderline personality disorder
KW  - mobile application
KW  - development
KW  - mental health
KW  - user design
KW  - design
KW  - psychiatric
KW  - implementation
KW  - innovation
AB  - Background: Mobile app development within mental health is often time- and resource-consuming, challenging the development of mobile apps for psychiatry. There is a continuum of software development methods ranging from linear (waterfall model) to continuous adaption (Scrum). Rapid application development (RAD) is a model that so far has not been applied to psychiatric settings and may have some advantages over other models. Objective: This study aims to explore the utility of the RAD model in developing a mobile app for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) in a psychiatric outpatient setting. Methods: The 4 phases of the RAD model: (1) requirements planning, (2) user design, (3) construction, and (4) cutover, were applied to develop a mobile app within psychiatric outpatient services for patients diagnosed with BPD. Results: For the requirements planning phase, a short time frame was selected to minimize the time between product conceptualization and access within a clinical setting. Evidenced-based interactive content already developed was provided by current staff to enhance usability and trustworthiness. For the user design phase, activity with video themes and a discrete number of functions were used to improve the app functionality and graphical user interface. For the construction phase, close collaboration between clinicians, researchers, and software developers yielded a fully functional, in-house–developed app ready to be tested in clinical practice. For the cutover phase, the mobile app was tested successfully with a small number (n=5) of patients with a BPD. Conclusions: The RAD model could be meaningfully applied in a psychiatric setting to develop an app for BPD within a relatively short time period from conceptualization to implementation in the clinic. Short time frames and identifying a limited number of stakeholders with relevant skills in-house facilitated the use of this model. Despite some limitations, RAD could be a useful model in the development of apps for clinical populations to enable development and access to evidence-based technology. 
SN  - 2292-9495
UR  - https://humanfactors.jmir.org/2023/1/e46928
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/46928
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38032709
DO  - 10.2196/46928
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/46928
ER  -