Purpose of the study: Recently, many mobile applications (apps) have been developed to enhance BLS training. Smartphone apps can be an important and epochal medium, especially for laypersons. On the other hand, some correct apps may be difficult for routine use. We carried out an expert-based usability evaluation of some smartphone apps for BLS education.
 
Materials and methods: We searched for mobile apps from Google Play and Apple App Stores and identified the first four apps in Italian that were present in both stores. Five ALS instructors put themselves in the role of potential users to examine apps in terms of conformity to 2015 ERC guidelines by a 10-item checklist (range: 0-20) and usability by the 10-item System Usability Scale (SUS, range: 0-100). The order in which apps were evaluated was randomized for each expert participant. R program was used for statistical analysis.
 
Results: All four apps analyzed in this study were well-designed, yielding high levels in conformity testing. As regards usability, mean score of SUS>68 is considered an acceptable value, based on the current literature about technological products or services. Only 2 apps had a score >68: LiveCPR and BLS Training Free. Mean SUS score among all apps was 64.6 (range: 47-87.5). According to the experts, features that improve usability are: auditory guidance, AED geolocalization by GPS, metronome for compression rate and stand-by mode lock.
 
Conclusions: Even correct apps, widely distributed and downloaded thousands of times, do not yield high scores in usability testing. Moreover, the expert-based evaluation showed the functions that make an app usable and desiderable. In the future, easy-to-use and accurate BLS training apps should be developed.

1 - Usability of smartphone apps for basic life support (BLS): an expert-based evaluation