Abstract A99: Novel method to aid clinicians and users in choosing smartphone applications for cancer prevention and management

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: As the number of mobile healthcare applications expand, the task of choosing the best one becomes increasingly difficult for users and clinicians. To streamline this process, we developed a novel mobile app characterization tool that allows users and clinicians to make better-informed decisions. We use cancer as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of our classification system. Methods: Mobile apps were identified by two key methods. First, we searched Apple's App Store and the Android Market for eight key terms. From these hits we included apps that were: (a) cancer-focused, (b) publicly available (c) targeted consumers (d) had a user rating of at least ⅗ and (e) focused on disease prevention, disease diagnosis or disease management. Second, each app was characterized according to 20 relevant features. Non-binomial variables (e.g. cost of the app) were recorded when appropriate. Results: Out of over 1200 mobile cancer apps evaluated, 25 met our inclusion criteria. Of these, only five focused on disease management and only one contained personalized user feedback. The highest scoring application overall, Cancer.net Mobile, only contained 14 of 20 relevant features. Also notably, nine of 25 cancer apps focused exclusively on breast cancer while only one focused on prostate cancer. Discussion: Thus, our system represents: (1) the first systematic approach to characterizing smartphone mobile apps related to chronic disease, (2) the first clinician and user reference tool to choosing the appropriate cancer app (3) the first systematic approach to identifying areas in need of app development. We aim to apply this system to other chronic diseases, generating a comprehensive guide for clinical decision making for mobile applications. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2011;4(10 Suppl):A99.