{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,22]],"date-time":"2026-10-22T17:43:30Z","timestamp":1792691010558,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,22]],"date-time":"2026-10-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1792627200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100020912","name":"King Faisal University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["KFU264010"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["KFU264010"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100020912","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p>National digital health platforms are becoming fundamental components of modern healthcare delivery; however, patient experience is commonly assessed using overall ratings or sentiment analysis, providing limited understanding of the specific dimensions that influence digital healthcare quality and service improvement. This study aimed to develop a multidimensional framework for understanding patient experience in a national digital health platform, examine variation across healthcare services, investigate changes over time, and identify evidence-based improvement priorities. A qualitative analysis was conducted using 97,034 Google Play reviews of Sehhaty, the Saudi national digital health platform, posted between 2019 and 2026. Reviews were analyzed using an inductive coding approach to develop a patient experience framework, followed by comparative analyses across healthcare services and longitudinal analyses across successive stages of platform development. Nine patient experience dimensions were identified. Patient experience differed considerably across healthcare services, indicating that improvement priorities were service-specific rather than uniform across the platform. Longitudinal analyses showed a shift from predominantly technical concerns during early deployment toward challenges involving service accessibility, integration, continuity of care, as the platform matured. These findings enabled the identification of service-specific priorities for improving digital healthcare delivery. Patient experience in national digital health platforms is multidimensional, service-dependent, and evolves alongside platform maturity. The proposed framework extends approaches based primarily on ratings or sentiment by transforming large-scale patient-generated feedback into actionable evidence for healthcare quality improvement and continuous evaluation of patient-centered digital health services.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0360416","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,22]],"date-time":"2026-10-22T17:25:00Z","timestamp":1792689900000},"page":"e0360416","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Patient experience in National digital health platforms: Evidence from patient-generated feedback in Saudi Arabia"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0596-5018","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Abdulmohsen Saud","family":"Albesher","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Computer Sciences and Information Technology, King Faisal University","place":["Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia"],"department":["Department of Information Systems"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,22]]},"reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0360416.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"271","DOI":"10.1186\/s12913-025-12414-4","article-title":"Impact of digital health technologies adoption on healthcare workers\u2019 performance and workload: perspective with DOI and TOE models","volume":"25","author":"A Jeilani","year":"2025","journal-title":"BMC Health Serv Res"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2196\/57385","article-title":"Digital Health Innovations to Catalyze the Transition to Value-Based Health Care","volume":"13","author":"L Zhang","year":"2025","journal-title":"JMIR Med Inform"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph20043407","article-title":"Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Technology Acceptance and Its Applications","volume":"20","author":"AI Stoumpos","year":"2023","journal-title":"International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0360416.ref004","article-title":"Utilizing Digital Health Technologies To Improve Patient Experience And Care Quality In Global Healthcare: A Systematic Review","volume":"1","author":"HTUN Muthukumarana","year":"2025","journal-title":"IJDHT"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2196\/44711","article-title":"The Use of Digital Health Services Among Patients and Citizens Living at Home: Scoping Review","volume":"25","author":"M Rosenlund","year":"2023","journal-title":"Journal of Medical Internet Research"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3390\/su17188468","article-title":"Customer Engagement in Digital Health Transformation as Strategic Change: Evidence from Saudi Arabia\u2019s Vision 2030","author":"A Aldogiher","year":"2025","journal-title":"Sustainability"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101097","DOI":"10.1016\/j.imu.2022.101097","article-title":"The role of the COVID-19 pandemic in expediting digital health-care transformation: Saudi Arabia\u2019s experience","volume":"33","author":"JM Alkhalifah","year":"2022","journal-title":"Inform Med Unlocked"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20552076251346698","DOI":"10.1177\/20552076251346698","article-title":"Evaluating user satisfaction and engagement in mHealth: Insights from the Integrated Digital Health Engagement Model (IDHEM)","volume":"11","author":"HM Alshammari","year":"2025","journal-title":"Digit Health"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1865","DOI":"10.2147\/IJGM.S515448","article-title":"Examining Healthcare Practitioners\u2019 Perceptions of Virtual Physicians, mHealth Applications, and Barriers to Adoption: Insights for Improving Patient Care and Digital Health Integration","volume":"18","author":"H Alzghaibi","year":"2025","journal-title":"Int J Gen Med"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0360416.ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.1186\/s12916-024-03842-w","article-title":"Qualitative evaluation of the implementation and national roll-out of the NHS App in England","volume":"23","author":"C Reidy","year":"2025","journal-title":"BMC Med"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref011","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"03083","DOI":"10.7189\/jogh.12.03083","article-title":"Development and implementation of a national mobile health application: A case study from Brunei","volume":"12","author":"KS Koh","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Glob Health"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0360416.ref012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"215","DOI":"10.4274\/balkanmedj.galenos.2023.2023-2-77","article-title":"A Digital Opportunity for Patients to Manage Their Health: Turkey National Personal Health Record System (The e-Nab\u0131z)","volume":"40","author":"\u015e Birinci","year":"2023","journal-title":"Balkan Med J"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref013","article-title":"Sentiment and thematic analysis of user reviews for FDA-cleared prescription digital therapeutics: A mixed-methods real-world evidence study","volume":"17","author":"S Lakhan","year":"2025","journal-title":"Cureus"},{"issue":"8","key":"pone.0360416.ref014","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2196\/37952","article-title":"Digital Patient Experience: Umbrella Systematic Review","volume":"24","author":"T Wang","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Med Internet Res"},{"issue":"7","key":"pone.0360416.ref015","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"196","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-022-10222-6","article-title":"A large scale analysis of mHealth app user reviews","volume":"27","author":"O Haggag","year":"2022","journal-title":"Empir Softw Eng"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0360416.ref016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"44766","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-025-28799-5","article-title":"Manual annotation based sentiment analysis of user feedback in health and wellness app reviews","volume":"15","author":"L Varghese","year":"2025","journal-title":"Sci Rep"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref017","article-title":"An Overview of Chatbot-Based Mobile Mental Health Apps: Insights From App Description and User Reviews","volume":"11","author":"MDR Haque","year":"2023","journal-title":"JMIR Mhealth Uhealth"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref018","article-title":"Classification of healthcare service reviews with sentiment analysis to refine user satisfaction","author":"KH Leong","year":"2022","journal-title":"International journal of electrical and computer engineering systems"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0360416.ref019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"115","DOI":"10.1038\/s41746-023-00862-3","article-title":"Rating analysis and BERTopic modeling of consumer versus regulated mHealth app reviews in Germany","volume":"6","author":"M Uncovska","year":"2023","journal-title":"NPJ Digit Med"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0360416.ref020","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1111\/ijcs.13016","article-title":"Mobile applications (apps) as service provider actors","volume":"48","author":"C Orsingher","year":"2024","journal-title":"Int J Consumer Studies"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref021","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"19876","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2023.3249786","article-title":"Toward a Unified mHealth Platform: A Survey of Current User Challenges and Expectations","volume":"11","author":"BJ Philip","year":"2023","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref022","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3390\/healthcare13121392","article-title":"mHealth applications in Saudi Arabia: current features and future opportunities","volume":"13","author":"S Alharthi","year":"2025","journal-title":"Healthcare"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0360416.ref023","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"956","DOI":"10.3390\/su15020956","article-title":"Studying Users\u2019 Perceptions of COVID-19 Mobile Applications in Saudi Arabia","volume":"15","author":"M Alghareeb","year":"2023","journal-title":"Sustainability"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref024","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113484","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jbusres.2022.113484","article-title":"Exploring the factors that affect user experience in mobile-health applications: A text-mining and machine-learning approach","volume":"156","author":"S Pal","year":"2023","journal-title":"J Bus Res"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref025","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2196\/45868","article-title":"Perceived Impact of Digital Health Maturity on Patient Experience, Population Health, Health Care Costs, and Provider Experience: Mixed Methods Case Study","volume":"25","author":"L Woods","year":"2023","journal-title":"Journal of Medical Internet Research"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0360416.ref026","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"224","DOI":"10.1007\/s41347-024-00441-7","article-title":"Mobile Health Apps: Guidance for Evaluation and Implementation by Healthcare Workers","volume":"10","author":"T Mescher","year":"2024","journal-title":"J technol behav sci"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref027","article-title":"Editorial: Patient Experience Data and Feedback for Quality Improvement and Learning Health Systems.","author":"TS Jesus","year":"2025","journal-title":"The International Journal of Health Planning and Management"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref028","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"111141","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3002176","article-title":"Using Machine Learning and Thematic Analysis Methods to Evaluate Mental Health Apps Based on User Reviews","volume":"8","author":"O Oyebode","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref029","first-page":"712","article-title":"Mobile health app usability and quality rating scales: a systematic review","volume":"16","author":"P Azad-Khaneghah","year":"2020","journal-title":"Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref030","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3389\/fdgth.2025.1561364","article-title":"How to evaluate user experience in digital health? A scoping review of questionnaires in virtual reality applications","volume":"7","author":"F Bruni","year":"2025","journal-title":"Frontiers in Digital Health"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref031","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3390\/healthcare12232328","article-title":"Validation of a questionnaire to assess the usability of and user experience with mobile health applications","volume":"12","author":"A De Dios L\u00f3pez","year":"2024","journal-title":"Healthcare"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref032","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3390\/su17020456","article-title":"Digital health technologies in patient experience literature: A scoping review and future outlook for sustainable digital health interventions","author":"A Aytekin","year":"2025","journal-title":"Sustainability"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref033","article-title":"A systemic review on the awareness, adoption, and utilization of digital health in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia","author":"AN Alfraih","year":"2024","journal-title":"African and Asian Studies"},{"issue":"5","key":"pone.0360416.ref034","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"494","DOI":"10.3390\/healthcare13050494","article-title":"Healthcare practitioners\u2019 perceptions of mhealth application barriers: Challenges to adoption and strategies for enhancing digital health integration","volume":"13","author":"H Alzghaibi","year":"2025","journal-title":"Healthcare"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref035","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2196\/71600","article-title":"Integrating patient perspectives into the digital health technology readiness framework: Delphi study","volume":"27","author":"E De La Torre","year":"2025","journal-title":"Journal of Medical Internet Research"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0360416.ref036","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2042","DOI":"10.1177\/1460458219896492","article-title":"Insights from user reviews to improve mental health apps","volume":"26","author":"F Alqahtani","year":"2020","journal-title":"Health Informatics J"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref037","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2196\/27403","article-title":"Consumer perspectives on maternal and infant health apps: qualitative content analysis","volume":"23","author":"R Biviji","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journal of Medical Internet Research"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref038","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104435","DOI":"10.1016\/j.msard.2022.104435","article-title":"Experiences of health tracking in mobile apps for multiple sclerosis: A qualitative content analysis of user reviews","volume":"69","author":"A Polhemus","year":"2023","journal-title":"Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders"},{"issue":"7","key":"pone.0360416.ref039","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0329029","volume":"20","author":"AS Albesher","year":"2025","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0360416.ref040","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.14569\/IJACSA.2023.0140602","article-title":"Investigating the user experience and evaluating usability issues in AI-enabled learning mobile apps: An analysis of user reviews","volume":"14","author":"B Alsanousi","year":"2023","journal-title":"IJACSA"},{"key":"pone.0360416.ref041","article-title":"Evaluating user feedback for an artificial intelligence\u2013enabled, cognitive behavioral therapy\u2013based mental health app (Wysa): qualitative thematic analysis","author":"T Malik","year":"2021","journal-title":"JMIR Human Factors"},{"issue":"4","key":"pone.0360416.ref042","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2196\/40133","article-title":"Health tracking via mobile apps for depression self-management: qualitative content analysis of user reviews","volume":"9","author":"A Polhemus","year":"2022","journal-title":"JMIR Human Factors"}],"container-title":["PLOS One"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0360416","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,22]],"date-time":"2026-10-22T17:25:06Z","timestamp":1792689906000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0360416"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Farshid","family":"Danesh","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Islamic World Science & Technology Monitoring and Citation Institute (ISC)","place":["IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"editor"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,22]]},"references-count":42,"journal-issue":{"issue":"10","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,22]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0360416","relation":{},"ISSN":["1932-6203"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1932-6203","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,22]]}}}