Conference Paper2024Cited by 3

Design and Evaluation of a Smartwatch-Based Physiological Signal-Driven Workplace Stress Management mHealth Tool for Bangladeshi Healthcare Professionals

Mahmudul Islam, Sami Rashid, Lishan Rafid, Tasnuba Badrul, Ashaful Islam, Beenish M Chaudhry

IEEE 2024 International Advances in Science & Engineering Technology (ASET) Multi-Conferences

IEEE, pp. 1-10

  • Good Health and Well-being — Relevance: 95%
DOI: 10.1109/aset60340.2024.10708713URL

Abstract

Healthcare professionals (HCPs) in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like Bangladesh often face high levels of workplace stress, which can negatively impact their mental well-being. However, this issue is frequently overlooked. Mobile health (mHealth) tools, integrated with wearable devices like smartwatches, have the potential to play a significant role in managing workplace stress among HCPs by leveraging physiological signals. This study explored the design and usability evaluation of a user-centered mHealth tool named ‘FreedHCP,’ aimed at managing stress among HCPs in Bangladesh. The research objectives include conducting design requirements and needfinding analysis, developing a high-fidelity prototype, and evaluating the usability of FreedHCP. A survey involving 71 HCPs revealed that high workload, patient and family pressure, and staffing shortages were major stressors, while social support, taking short breaks, and time management were effective coping strategies. Participants expressed a desire for features like guided meditation sessions, personalized stress management plans, realtime health tracking, and willingness to use a smartwatch-based mHealth app for real-time stress monitoring. Based on these insights, the FreedHCP offers five feature categories: ‘Assigned Tasks', ‘Notification Settings', ‘Get Help’, ‘Wellness Check’, and ‘Supervisor Dashboard’. The usability evaluation revealed that the ‘Smart Monitoring’ feature from the ‘Wellness Check’ category was the most liked, with 29.2% of votes. The app achieved a mean System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 71.77. Moreover, 95.8% of participants expressed willingness to use and recommend FreedHCP to colleagues.

Keywords

  • healthcare workers
  • coping strategies
  • occupational stress
  • Stress management
  • physiological signals
  • wearable devices
  • smartwatches
  • psychological well-being
  • usability evaluation
  • mobile health

CCDS Authors

Sami Rashid
Sami Rashid

Sami Rashid

  • Intern, CCDS

Research Interests

Machine Learning

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Cited By

  1. 1.Youngji Koh, Jeonghyun Kim, Kwangyoung Lee, Yugyeong Jung, Hwajung Hong, Uichin Lee. (2026). Exploring Data-Driven Approaches to Stress Management: A Systematic Review of Stress Tracking, Intervention, and System Evaluation Methods. , 1–25[10.1145/3772318.3791194]
  2. 2.Omukisa Kireba K.. (2025). Digital Biomarkers: Engineering Tools for Personalized Health Tracking. Research Output Journal of Public Health and Medicine, 5(1), 26–32[10.59298/rojphm/2025/512632]
  3. 3.Zeba Siddiqui, Ashish Verma, Akanksha Sharma, Shaweta Sharma, Sunita, Akhil Sharma. (2025). Optimising Hospital Management Systems. BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS eBooks, 32–63[10.2174/9798898811594125010005]
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