Translation and Validation of the Arrhythmia-Specific Questionnaire in Tachycardia and Arrhythmia (ASTA) to the Brazilian Context: An Instrument Focusing on Arrhythmia Symptoms.

INTRODUCTION: The wide variety of symptoms in patients with cardiac arrhythmias can affect daily living activities. The evaluation of symptoms with patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), with validated instruments, can provide information that contributes to clinical decisions and treatment. In Brazil, however, there is no available scale that evaluates symptoms in different types of arrhythmias. PURPOSE: This study aimed to translate the Arrhythmia-Specific Questionnaire in Tachycardia and Arrhythmia symptom scale (ASTA-symptom scale) and then validate the questionnaire in terms of Brazilian culture. METHOD: The methodological process of cultural adaptation used was based on international literature guidelines consisting of forward translation, synthesis, back translation, review by an expert committee, and pretest. Psychometric analyses were conducted with 140 patients. These included measuring internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha), construct validity with item-total correlations, and convergent construct validity with correlations with the quality of life questionnaire for patients with atrial fibrillation-version 2 (QVFA-v2). Usability and understandability were evaluated through the usability evaluation of instruments. RESULTS: The translation and adaptation processes were performed by obtaining the Brazilian Portuguese version of the original Swedish instrument. This version presented the internal consistency of items, evaluated through Cronbach's α (0.79). Construct validity was demonstrated by item-total correlations for the nine items, all except one reached the level of >0.30 (0.24). Convergent validity showed a high correlation with QVFA-v2 (0.89). As for the evaluation of usability and understanding, after two small suggested changes, no additional alterations were necessary. CONCLUSION: The psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of ASTA-symptom scale evaluated in this study were satisfactory, and the scale was proved to be a valid and reliable tool to assess the symptom burden in patients with different forms of tachyarrhythmia. The ASTA-Br-symptom scale questionnaire can be an important addition to PROMs for patients with arrhythmias and could help healthcare professionals in decision-making.

Collaborative software development for a Brazilian telehealth program.

Telehealth services in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil are led by the Telehealth Center (RedeNUTES) and based on HealthNet 2.0 software. Among the tele-assistance services, health professionals have clinical discussions focused on second opinions. This paper reports the experience in a PhD study through mixed-methods, to evaluate the telehealth services, planning and modeling a new tool to improve a telehealth system. We described the nurse's role in each phase of this study. The method of User-Centered Design was explored in three phases as Identification of work process, User's perception and collaborative modeling, Observational usability study. The main frame was based on collaborative techniques as Collaborative Prototype Design Process, cognitive walkthrough, and thinking-aloud. The users also identified all usability problems identified by the evaluators. The methods were useful in identifying usability problems, and easy to employ using standard equipment and software thus a relatively low cost approach to usability testing.