A systematic literature review of content-based mobile health

Abstract

Mobile health (m-health) applications have recently attracted attention from both the manufacturing sector and research community. The evolution in the use of the smartphone has been aided by advanced communication and presents challenges in terms of the reliability and accuracy of applications. Awareness of these challenges could help industries and designers to develop better tools to enable patients and users to access effective apps. The aim of the study is to identify the critical features and content for m-health apps and the essential components for a salient m-health framework. In support of this aim, this article reviews 80 papers with more than 100 applications regarding m-health applications to gain a deep understanding of the critical content requirements for future improvements in m-health app features. Four prominent characteristics of the most important features emerged from the review of the literature: 1) reminder, 2) monitoring program, 3) training program, and 4) community network features. These features were then incorporated into the design of a m-health framework. It is our hope that m-health technology adoption will increase in the near future by improving patient engagement. The authors believe that by understanding m-health app critical content requirements and its classification, new solutions may be revealed with the potential to overcome the present challenges.