Backend Concept of the eSano eHealth Platform for Internet- and Mobile-based Interventions

Abstract

Mental disorders represent an ongoing challenge to global health and can affect anyone at any age from any region in the world. The response of healthcare providers to mental health disorders still lags behind that of other diseases and a significant number of people who are affected by mental health disorders do not receive adequate treatment. The widespread usage of Internet-connected devices provides new opportunities to deliver treatment to more people using innovative approaches. The groundwork is being laid for the adoption of Internet- and mobile-based interventions, providing mental and behavioral health support to more people and narrowing the treatment gap. This paper discusses the main technical details of the backend API of the eSano eHealth platform as an example for a complex and comprehensive IT-framework for large-scale and flexible Internet- and mobile-based interventions. An overview of eSano is provided and the platform is compared with other technical solutions in the field. In addition, the components of eSano are described and further technical insights are elaborated in more detail. To this end, the work at hand demonstrates the main requirements of the backend API powering eSano, its concepts and the overall developed solution. It will as such inform researchers and practitioners about state-of-the-art backend API development in the eHealth context.