Abstract
Background: Drug reference apps promote self-management and improve the efficiency and quality of work for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and patients. This study aimed to describe a systematic and stepwise process to identify drug reference apps in Taiwan, assess the quality of these apps, and analyze the influential factors for user ratings. Methods: A two-step algorithm (KESS) consisting of keyword growing and systematic search was proposed. Seven independent reviewers were trained to evaluate these apps using Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS). A logistic regression model was fitted and average marginal effects (AME) were calculated to identify the effects of factors for higher user ratings. Results: A total of 23 drug reference apps in Taiwan were identified and analyzed. Generally, these drug reference apps were evaluated as acceptable quality with an average MARS score of 3.23. Higher user engagement, more functionality, better aesthetics, and more information associated with higher user ratings. Navigation is the most influential factor on higher user ratings (AME: 13.15%) followed by performance (AME: 11.03%), visual appeal (AME: 10.87%), credibility (AME: 10.67%), and quantity of information (AME: 10.42%). Conclusions: User experience and information clearly affect user ratings of drug reference apps. Five key factors should be considered when designing drug reference apps.
Highlights
Drug reference apps have already become a must-have tool for health providers and patients through the whole medication therapeutic cycle [1,2,3,4,5]
While mobile health apps are mostly for reference purposes, drug reference apps are the apps that help users gain a better understanding of medications by providing up-to-date drug information including drug names, trade names, category, classification, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, availability, indications and dosages, contraindications, interactions, side effects, serious reactions, and precautions and considerations are ranked within the top 3 most-used apps among medical professionals [1]
Twenty-three drug reference apps in Taiwan were included after keyword growing and systematic search (KESS algorithm) (Figure 1)
Summary
Drug reference apps have already become a must-have tool for health providers and patients through the whole medication therapeutic cycle [1,2,3,4,5]. While mobile health apps are mostly for reference purposes, drug reference apps are the apps that help users gain a better understanding of medications by providing up-to-date drug information including drug names, trade names, category, classification, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, availability, indications and dosages, contraindications, interactions, side effects, serious reactions, and precautions and considerations are ranked within the top 3 most-used apps among medical professionals [1]. Many people found mobile apps easy to use, that they help in managing medication, and increase treatment adherence in patients by helping them to better understand their medicine [15]. This study aimed to describe a systematic and stepwise process to identify drug reference apps in Taiwan, assess the quality of these apps, and analyze the influential factors for user ratings. Results: A total of 23 drug reference apps in Taiwan were identified and analyzed These drug reference apps were evaluated as acceptable quality with an average MARS score of 3.23. Five key factors should be considered when designing drug reference apps
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