Perceived Usability of a Ferritin Rapid Diagnostic Test Among Primary Healthcare Professionals: A Simulation-Based Evaluation

Introduction: Early identification of iron deficiency remains challenging in many primary healthcare settings because conventional ferritin testing requires laboratory infrastructure that may be limited in resource-constrained settings. A Ferritin Rapid Diagnostic Test (Ferritin RDT) has been developed as a point-of-care approach to facilitate ferritin assessment. Evaluating its perceived usability among intended healthcare users is an important preliminary step before field-based evaluation. To evaluate the perceived usability of a newly developed Ferritin Rapid Diagnostic Test among primary healthcare professionals following standardized training and supervised simulation. Methods: A descriptive quantitative evaluative study was conducted among 20 healthcare professionals from primary healthcare facilities in Mataram City and West Lombok Regency, Indonesia. Participants received standardized training and independently performed a supervised simulation using the Ferritin RDT, a lateral flow immunoassay for qualitative ferritin assessment. The test used serum specimens and provided visual results based on purple-colored control and test lines. After the simulation, participants completed the 10-item System Usability Scale (SUS). One participant did not complete the SUS questionnaire and was excluded from the usability analysis; therefore, 19 complete SUS responses were analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize participant characteristics and SUS scores, and brief open-ended comments were reported as preliminary user feedback. Results: Among the 19 participants with complete SUS responses, the mean SUS score was 78.68 (SD = 13.52), with a median of 77.50 (IQR = 71.25–88.75) and a range of 50–100. Sixteen participants (84.2%) had SUS scores ≥68, whereas three (15.8%) scored below this benchmark. The overall score corresponded to a good adjective rating, Grade B, and an Acceptable usability classification. Item-level responses generally indicated favorable perceptions of ease of use, learnability, functional integration, and confidence during use. Brief open-ended comments were generally positive, although one participant suggested reducing the testing time. Conclusion: The Ferritin RDT demonstrated favorable perceived usability among primary healthcare professionals following standardized training and supervised simulation. These findings provide preliminary evidence of usability under simulated conditions but do not establish diagnostic accuracy, technology acceptance, implementation readiness, or routine adoption. Further field-based studies are needed to evaluate the Ferritin RDT under real-world primary healthcare conditions.