Background: Tablet-based health care interventions have the potential to encourage patient care in a timelier manner, allow physicians convenient access to patient records, and provide an improved method for patient education. However, along with the continued adoption of tablet technologies, there is a concomitant need to develop protocols focusing on the configuration, management, and maintenance of these devices within the health care setting to support the conduct of clinical research.
Objective: Develop three protocols to support tablet configuration, tablet management, and tablet maintenance.
Methods: The Configurator software, Tile technology, and current infection control recommendations were employed to develop three distinct protocols for tablet-based digital health interventions. Configurator is a mobile device management software specifically for iPhone operating system (iOS) devices. The capabilities and current applications of Configurator were reviewed and used to develop the protocol to support device configuration. Tile is a tracking tag associated with a free mobile app available for iOS and Android devices. The features associated with Tile were evaluated and used to develop the Tile protocol to support tablet management. Furthermore, current recommendations on preventing health care-related infections were reviewed to develop the infection control protocol to support tablet maintenance.
Results: This article provides three protocols: the Configurator protocol, the Tile protocol, and the infection control protocol.
Conclusions: These protocols can help to ensure consistent implementation of tablet-based interventions, enhance fidelity when employing tablets for research purposes, and serve as a guide for tablet deployments within clinical settings.
Keywords: clinical research protocol; infection control; mHealth; mobile device management; tablet computers.