Mobile Apps for Blood Pressure Monitoring: Systematic Search in App Stores and Content Analysis

Jamaladin, Hussein; Belt, Tom H van de; Luijpers, Lianda Ch; Graaff, Falco R de; Bredie, S.J.H.; Gelder, Marleen M.H.J. van

doi:10.2196/mhealth.9888

Cited by 77 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(34 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Main services provided by hypertension m-health apps according to a survey of 107 different products (A) and main characteristics of m-health apps used for blood pressure (BP) monitoring according to another survey of 184 applications (B) [redrawn from (52) and (53) by permission].…”

Section: M-healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Connected Health in Hypertension Management

Omboni

2019

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

e-health is defined as the use of communication and information technologies (ICT) to manage patients and their health in a more efficient way, with the aim of improving the overall quality of care. Healthcare services relying on telehealth (or telemedicine) and mobile health (m-health) are the most popular e-health tools used by healthcare professionals and consumers. These applications allow the exchange of medical data between patients and their doctors or among healthcare professionals, mainly through the Internet, and are used to provide healthcare services remotely (so-called “ connected health ”). The most popular telemedicine application in the field of hypertension is blood pressure telemonitoring (BPT), which enables transmission of BP and various clinical information from patients' homes or from the community to the doctor's surgery or the hospital. Numerous randomized controlled trials have documented a significant BP reduction combined with an intensification and optimization of the use of antihypertensive medications in patients making use of BPT plus remote counseling by a case manager, with the supervision of a doctor or a community pharmacist (telepharmacy). The major benefits of BPT are usually observed in high-risk patients. BPT can also be based on m-health wireless solutions, provided with educational support, medication trackers and reminders, and teleconsultation. In this context, BPT may favor patient's self-management, as an adjunct to the doctor's intervention, and foster patient's participation in medical decision making, with consequent improvement in BP control and increase in medication adherence. In conclusion, e-health solutions, and in particular telemedicine, are increasingly attaining a key position in the management of the hypertensive patient, with an enormous potential in terms of improvement of the quality of the delivered care, increase in the chance of a successful BP control and effective prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

show abstract

Section: M-healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A content analysis of apps specifically designed for BP monitoring has been recently published by Jamaladin et al (53). The authors scrutinized 184 apps, of which 104 Android and 80 iOS apps.…”

Section: M-healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connected Health in Hypertension Management

Omboni

2019

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Armstrong [ 61 ] came to the same conclusion with a similar study and suggested government regulation for health data processing. Tabi et al [ 62 ] and Jamaladin et al [ 63 ] also criticized the lack of clarity of conventional app stores and emphasized the need for professional health app stores and medical doctors’ recommendation to their patients. Becker et al [ 64 ] agreed with Huckvale et al [ 60 ] and Armstrong [ 61 ] because most health apps are not certified as a medical device, which means that their data protection terms are, in most cases, not supervised by a government agency.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential Benefits and Risks Resulting From the Introduction of Health Apps and Wearables Into the German Statutory Health Care System: Scoping Review

Heidel¹,

Hagist²

2020

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Germany is the first country worldwide that has introduced a digital care act as an incentive system to enhance the use of digital health devices, namely health apps and wearables, among its population. The act allows physicians to prescribe statutory financed and previously certified health apps and wearables to patients. This initiative has the potential to improve treatment quality through better disease management and monitoring. Objective The aim of this paper was to outline the key concepts related to the potential risks and benefits discussed in the current literature about health apps and wearables. Furthermore, this study aimed to answer the research question: Which risks and benefits may result from the implementation of the digital care act in Germany? Methods We conducted the scoping study by searching the databases PubMed, Google Scholar, and JMIR using the keywords health apps and wearables. We discussed 55 of 136 identified articles published in the English language from 2015 to March 2019 in this paper using a qualitative thematic analysis approach. Results We identified four key themes within the articles: Effectivity of health apps and wearables to improve health; users of health apps and wearables; the potential of bring-your-own, self-tracked data; and concerns and data privacy risks. Within these themes, we identified three main stages of benefits for the German health care system: Usage of health apps and wearables; continuing to use health apps and wearables; and sharing bring-your-own; self-tracked data with different agents in the health care sector. Conclusions The digital care act could lead to an improvement in treatment quality through better patient monitoring, disease management, personalized therapy, and better health education. However, physicians should play an active role in recommending and supervising health app use to reach digital-illiterate or health-illiterate people. Age must not be an exclusion criterion. Yet, concerns about data privacy and security are very strong in Germany. Transparency about data processing should be provided at all times for continuing success of the digital care act in Germany.

show abstract

“…The availability of data export will allow users to share health reports with their health care providers. Automated data entry can provide greater efficiency in inputting data to the app system while streamlining the user’s experience [ 27 , 28 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile Health Apps on COVID-19 Launched in the Early Days of the Pandemic: Content Analysis and Review

Ming¹,

Untong²,

Aliudin³

et al. 2020

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

540

140

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Mobile health (mHealth) app use is a major concern because of the possible dissemination of misinformation that could harm the users. Particularly, it can be difficult for health care professionals to recommend a suitable app for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) education and self-monitoring purposes. Objective This study aims to analyze and evaluate the contents as well as features of COVID-19 mobile apps. The findings are instrumental in helping health care professionals to identify suitable mobile apps for COVID-19 self-monitoring and education. The results of the mobile apps’ assessment could potentially help mobile app developers improve or modify their existing mobile app designs to achieve optimal outcomes. Methods The search for the mHealth apps available in the android-based Play Store and the iOS-based App Store was conducted between April 18 and May 5, 2020. The region of the App Store where we performed the search was the United States, and a virtual private network app was used to locate and access COVID-19 mobile apps from all countries on the Google Play Store. The inclusion criteria were apps that are related to COVID-19 with no restriction in language type. The basic features assessment criteria used for comparison were the requirement for free subscription, internet connection, education or advisory content, size of the app, ability to export data, and automated data entry. The functionality of the apps was assessed according to knowledge (information on COVID-19), tracing or mapping of COVID-19 cases, home monitoring surveillance, online consultation with a health authority, and official apps run by health authorities. Results Of the 223 COVID-19–related mobile apps, only 30 (19.9%) found in the App Store and 28 (44.4%) in the Play Store matched the inclusion criteria. In the basic features assessment, most App Store (10/30, 33.3%) and Play Store (10/28, 35.7%) apps scored 4 out of 7 points. Meanwhile, the outcome of the functionality assessment for most App Store apps (13/30, 43.3%) was a score of 3 compared to android-based apps (10/28, 35.7%), which scored 2 (out of the maximum 5 points). Evaluation of the basic functions showed that 75.0% (n=36) of the 48 included mobile apps do not require a subscription, 56.3% (n=27) provide symptom advice, and 41.7% (n=20) have educational content. In terms of the specific functions, more than half of the included mobile apps are official mobile apps maintained by a health authority for COVID-19 information provision. Around 37.5% (n=18) and 31.3% (n=15) of the mobile apps have tracing or mapping and home monitoring surveillance functions, respectively, with only 17% (n=8) of the mobile apps equipped with an online consultation function. Conclusions Most iOS-based apps incorporate infographic mapping of COVID-19 cases, while most android-based apps incorporate home monitoring surveillance features instead of providing focused educational content on COVID-19. It is important to evaluate the contents and features of COVID-19 mobile apps to guide users in choosing a suitable mobile app based on their requirements.

show abstract

Mobile Apps for Blood Pressure Monitoring: Systematic Search in App Stores and Content Analysis

Cited by 77 publications

References 39 publications

Connected Health in Hypertension Management

Connected Health in Hypertension Management

Potential Benefits and Risks Resulting From the Introduction of Health Apps and Wearables Into the German Statutory Health Care System: Scoping Review

Mobile Health Apps on COVID-19 Launched in the Early Days of the Pandemic: Content Analysis and Review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About