Stakeholder engagement, proper planning and modular design for mHealth apps: lessons from QuestExplore and working toward standards for mHealth app design.

IF 2.2 Q2 HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES

mHealth Pub Date : 2022-10-30 eCollection Date: 2022-01-01 DOI:10.21037/mhealth-22-28

Amanda K Johnson, Sung Won Choi

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

With the exponential growth of technology over the past century, individuals engaging with some form of technology in their daily lives is fairly ubiquitous. A subset of the broader technology advancements involves the growth of mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) that typically engage individuals in learning about, tracking and/or managing some aspect of their health and wellness. The rate of mHealth app creation and engagement has outpaced regulatory management, creating dead-end or one-hit wonder apps that are specific for a certain population and time, lacking malleability and iterative plans for future versions of those apps (1). Additionally, without much regulatory guidance, questions and concerns regarding the privacy and security of data recorded in mHealth apps are often raised (1). The rapid pace of mHealth app development and release has been known for over a decade with almost 6,000 health and wellness apps in 2010 and nearly tripling to 17,000 health and wellness apps in 2013 (2). More recent estimates cite 350,000 mHealth apps that are currently available to consumers (3). Subramaniam and colleagues took advantage of a longneeded opportunity by completing and subsequently outlining a rigorous qualitative approach of their app’s development in the recent mHealth article “Careful considerations for mHealth app development: lessons learned from QuestExplore (1).” Additionally, they review how the app they developed could be modified for future use and further adapted or scaled in different populations (1). Their iterative development process highlights the importance of engagement with an interdisciplinary team of stakeholders, heavy planning and beta testing phases, and modular app design (1). Using this approach as guidance for the creation of future mHealth apps will make mHealth apps more standardized in their development, improve data safety and security, and allow for broader use (1).

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