Abstract
The latest generation of smartphones are increasingly viewed as handheld computers rather than as phones, due to their powerful on-board computing capability, capacious memories, large screens and open operating systems that encourage application development. This paper provides a brief state-of-the-art overview of health and healthcare smartphone apps (applications) on the market today, including emerging trends and market uptake. Platforms available today include Android, Apple iOS, RIM BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows (Windows Mobile 6.x and the emerging Windows Phone 7 platform). The paper covers apps targeting both laypersons/patients and healthcare professionals in various scenarios, e.g., health, fitness and lifestyle education and management apps; ambient assisted living apps; continuing professional education tools; and apps for public health surveillance. Among the surveyed apps are those assisting in chronic disease management, whether as standalone apps or part of a BAN (Body Area Network) and remote server configuration. We describe in detail the development of a smartphone app within eCAALYX (Enhanced Complete Ambient Assisted Living Experiment, 2009-2012), an EU-funded project for older people with multiple chronic conditions. The eCAALYX Android smartphone app receives input from a BAN (a patient-wearable smart garment with wireless health sensors) and the GPS (Global Positioning System) location sensor in the smartphone, and communicates over the Internet with a remote server accessible by healthcare professionals who are in charge of the remote monitoring and management of the older patient with multiple chronic conditions. Finally, we briefly discuss barriers to adoption of health and healthcare smartphone apps (e.g., cost, network bandwidth and battery power efficiency, usability, privacy issues, etc.), as well as some workarounds to mitigate those barriers.
Highlights
More than half of Americans aged 25-29 live in households with mobile phones but no traditional landline telephones, a December 2010 report on phone use by the US National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has found
The same study found that the younger children are, the likelier they are to live in homes that only have wireless phones, suggesting that younger parents are becoming increasingly reliant on mobile phones even as they adjust from being single to a more settled family lifestyle [1]
Calling a mobile phone on some tariffs may use up respondents’ air time, and there may be an ethical onus on the researcher to reimburse the costs incurred [58]. It is clear from their rapid proliferation and deep penetration into society, that there are significant opportunities to exploit the potential of smartphones in healthcare [27]
Summary
More than half of Americans aged 25-29 live in households with mobile phones but no traditional landline telephones, a December 2010 report on phone use by the US National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has found. Senior citizens of tomorrow will include the young and middle aged of today, who are more familiar with, and reliant on computers, smartphones and the Internet than previous generations, and are increasingly well-versed in using these technologies on a daily basis for study, work and leisure This might partially contribute (in the long run) to solving some of the smartphone app usability and learnability issues, which current generations of older people are facing. The emerging Windows Phone 7 platform is rapidly gathering momentum and support by major smartphone providers [57], with a growing number of health-related apps already available from Windows Phone 7 Marketplace for the new handsets (Figure 1 - [3]). Calling a mobile phone on some tariffs may use up respondents’ air time, and there may be an ethical onus on the researcher to reimburse the costs incurred [58]
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