Goldilocks and the Three Bears: A Just-Right Hybrid Model to Synthesize the Growing Landscape of Publicly Available Health-Related Mobile Apps.

Nancy Lau,Alison O'Daffer,Joyce Yi-Frazier,Abby R Rosenberg

doi:10.2196/27105

Abstract

Mobile health (mHealth) technologies have provided an innovative platform for the deployment of health care diagnostics, symptom monitoring, and prevention and intervention programs. Such health-related smartphone apps are universally accepted by patients and providers with over 50 million users worldwide. Despite the rise in popularity and accessibility among consumers, the evidence base in support of health-related apps has fallen well behind the rapid pace of industry development. To bridge this evidence gap, researchers are beginning to consider how to best apply evidence-based research standards to the systematic synthesis of the mHealth consumer market. In this viewpoint, we argue for the adoption of a “hybrid model” that combines a traditional systematic review with a systematic search of mobile app download platforms for health sciences researchers interested in synthesizing the state of the science of consumer apps. This approach, which we have successfully executed in a recent review, maximizes the benefits of traditional and novel approaches to address the essential question of whether popular consumer mHealth apps work.

Highlights

In the past decade, smartphones have become ubiquitous across personal, social, and vocational domains [1], regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status [2]
Mobile health technologies may improve access to health care by overcoming financial constraints and geographical barriers; 73% of families living below the poverty line have 1 or more smartphones even if they lack access to other resources, and telehealth enables expanded access to services in rural communities [5,6]
We found further evidence to support the conclusion that apps developed in industry and research settings are siloed

Summary

Introduction

Smartphones have become ubiquitous across personal, social, and vocational domains [1], regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status [2]. There are 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide [3]. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies may improve access to health care by overcoming financial constraints and geographical barriers; 73% of families living below the poverty line have 1 or more smartphones even if they lack access to other resources, and telehealth enables expanded access to services in rural communities [5,6]. Over 50 million people use apps for health monitoring and diagnostic purposes worldwide [7]. Smartphone app-based tools for diagnosis, symptom monitoring, behavioral change, provider–patient communication, and disease-related education have become increasingly popular and have the potential to improve health and behavioral outcomes [8,9,10]

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