Design, Implementation and Evaluating of a Registry System for Patients with Ureteral Stents

Abstract

Background and Aim: Ureteral stent placement is one of the most common procedures for temporary treatment purposes in the field of urological diseases, which must be removed from the body after the end of their useful life. Given the importance of proper control and management of implanted stents, the development of a registration system can be useful in reminding patients to remove stents on time, following up on patients, and assessing their health outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to design, implement, and evaluate a registration system for patients with ureteral stents at Urmia University of Medical Sciences.

Materials and Methods: The present study is an applied descriptive-cross-sectional study conducted in 2024, comprising four main stages. The first stage involved determining the minimum data set and system capabilities using the two-stage Delphi method. Subsequently, a five-member working group, consisting of two urology specialists, two health information management specialists, and one medical informatics specialist, was formed to design a prototype of the registration system. In the third stage, the system was developed using the Visual Studio 2019 programming environment and the ASP.Net framework. Finally, the system’s usability was evaluated using the QUIS standard questionnaire.

Results: Out of 185 initial data elements, 115 were approved in the first Delphi round and 25 in the second Delphi round, with over 75% expert consensus. A total of 140 data elements, categorized into seven main classes: demographic information, social history, medical history, clinical information, diagnostic procedures, therapeutic procedures, and patient discharge information. Essential capabilities of the ureteral stent registration system included system security, timely stent removal reminders, warnings for forgotten stent removals, and ease of use. Based on information from the first stage, the user interface and prototype of the registration system were designed. The system was then developed using the C# programming language and SQL Server 2019 database, subsequently implemented as a web-based system at the Imam Khomeini Educational and Medical Center in Urmia and users received necessary training. After three months of use, the system’s usability was evaluated. The results indicated average scores in six key areas: vocabulary and system information (8.65), user interface (8.52), learnability (8.25), display (8.24), interaction with the system (7.92), and overall performance (7.85) out of 10 points.

Conclusion: In this study, a web-based registry system was developed to collect and analyze essential information of patients with ureteral stents. The use of this registry system be useful for rapid identification of patients with stents, provision of appropriate treatment, monitoring treatment outcomes, and management of complications due to forgotten stents