Mobile Health Applications to Assist Patients with Diabetes: Lessons Learned and Design Implications

Context: Using smart mobile devices, called mobile health (mHealth), facilitates providing health services, speeds up the process, and reduces the costs and complications of direct services. Also, mHealth has many capabilities and applications in epidemic and pandemic outbreaks. This study aimed to identify mHealth applications in epidemic/pandemic outbreaks and provide some suggestions for tackling COVID-19. Methods: To find the relevant studies, searches were done in PubMed and Scopus by related keywords during 2014 - 2020 (March 10). After selecting the studies based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, data were collected by a data-gathering form. Results: Of the 727 retrieved studies, 17 studies were included. All studies emphasized the positive effect of mHealth for use in epidemic/pandemic outbreaks. The main applications of mHealth for epidemic/pandemic outbreaks included public health aspects, data management, educational programs, diagnosis, and treatment. Conclusions: mHealth is an appropriate method for encountering epidemic/pandemic outbreaks due to its extensive applications. In the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, mHealth is one of the best choices to use in the patient-physician relationship as tele-visits, using in fever coach, providing real-time information for healthcare providers, population monitoring, and detecting the disease based on obtained data from different locations.

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Malaria Geo-Localization with Mobile-Health Applications

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2708159 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Roberto Moro Visconti ◽

Alberto Larocca ◽

Michele Marconi

Keyword(s):

Mobile Health ◽

Mobile Health Applications ◽

Health Applications

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EFFECTIVNESS OF SPECIFIC MOBILE HEALTH APPLICATIONS (mHEALTH-APPS)in GESTATIONAL DIABTETES MELLITUS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.23016 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Claudia Eberle ◽

Maxine Löhnert

Keyword(s):

Mobile Health ◽

Cochrane Library ◽

Clinical Parameters ◽

Control Groups ◽

Manual Search ◽

Mobile Health Applications ◽

Short And Long Term ◽

Mhealth Apps ◽

Health Applications

BACKGROUND Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) emerges worldwide and is closely associated with short- and long-term health issues in women and their offspring, such as pregnancy and birth complications respectively comorbidities, Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) as well as cardiovascular disease (CD). Against this background mobile health applications (mHealth-Apps) do open up new possibilities to improve the management of GDM clearly. OBJECTIVE Since there is – to our knowledge – no systematic literature review published, which focusses on the effectiveness of specific mHealth-Apps on clinical health-related short and long-term outcomes of mother and child, we conducted these much-needed analyses. METHODS Data sources: A systematic literature search in Medline (Pubmed), Cochrane Library, Embase, CINAHL and Web of Science was performed including full text publications since 2008 up to date. An additional manual search in references and Google Scholar was conducted subsequently. Study Eligibility Criteria: Women diagnosed with GDM using specific mHealth-Apps during pregnancy compared to control groups, which met main clinical parameters and outcomes in GDM management as well as maternity and offspring care. Study appraisal and synthesis methods: Study quality was assessed and rated “strong”, “moderate” or “weak” by using the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) tool. Study results were strongly categorized by outcomes; an additional qualitative summary was assessed. Study selection: Overall, n= 114 studies were analyzed, n= 46 duplicates were removed, n=5 studies met the eligible criteria and n=1 study was assessed by manual search subsequently. In total, n=6 publications, analyzing n=408 GDM patients in the interventional and n=405 women diagnosed with GDM in the control groups, were included. These studies were divided into n=5 two-arm randomized controlled trials (RCT) and n=1 controlled clinical trial (CCT). RESULTS Distinct improvements in clinical parameters and outcomes, such as fasting blood glucoses (FBG), 2-hour postprandial blood glucoses (PBG), off target blood glucose measurements (OTBG), delivery modes and patient compliance were analyzed in GDM patients using specific mHealth-Apps compared to matched control groups. CONCLUSIONS mHealth-Apps clearly improve clinical outcomes in management of GDM effectively. More studies need to be done more in detail.

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Mobile Health Applications to Support COVID-19 Self-management: Review and Evaluation

Applied Health Information Technology ◽

10.18502/ahit.v2i2.7992 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sahar Khenarinezhad ◽

Ehsan Ghazanfari Savadkoohi ◽

Leila Shahmoradi

Keyword(s):

Mobile Health ◽

Mobile Apps ◽

Healthcare Providers ◽

Vital Signs ◽

Complete Information ◽

Self Management ◽

Management Measures ◽

Management Procedures ◽

Mobile Health Applications ◽

Health Applications

Aim: During the epidemic and with an increase in coronavirus (COVID-19) disease prevalence, emergency care is essential to help people stay informed and undertake self-management measures to protect their health. One of these self-management procedures is the use of mobile apps in health. Mobile health (mHealth) applications include mobile devices in collecting clinical health data, sharing healthcare information for practitioners and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vital signs, and the direct provision of care (via mobile telemedicine). Mobile apps are increasing to improve health, but before healthcare providers can recommend these applications to patients, they need to be sure the apps will help change patients' lifestyles. Method: A search was conducted systematically using the keywords "Covid-19," "Coronavirus," "Covid-19, and Self-management" at the "Apple App Store". Then we evaluated the apps according to MARS criteria in May 2020. Results: A total of 145 apps for COVID-19 self-management were identified, but only 32 apps met our inclusion criteria after being assessed. The overall mean MARS score was 2.9 out of 5, and more than half of the apps had a minimum acceptability score (range 2.5-3.9). The "who academy" app received the highest functionality score. Who Academy, Corona-Care and First Responder COVID-19 Guide had the highest scores for behavior change. Conclusion: Our findings showed that few apps meet the quality, content, and functionality criteria for Covid-19 self-management. Therefore, developers should use evidence-based medical guidelines in creating mobile health applications so that, they can provide comprehensive and complete information to both patients and healthcare provider.

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