Security and Privacy of mHealth Applications: A Scoping Review

Abstract

While digital health or mHealth applications (apps) have become accessible resources for the support of personal health, the privacy and security of users' data have been the subject of concern and controversy. As large numbers of mHealth apps are created and are increasingly widely used by people with various health conditions, it is crucial to have clear and valid methods for evaluating the data practices within them. Recent regulatory initiatives such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have had the effect of raising awareness and establishing a minimal set of expectations. However, they do not in themselves address the issue of the development of systems which meet privacy and security requirements. There is a growing body of research on evaluation techniques and frameworks to support the assessment of the privacy and security of health apps, and guidelines to support their design. However, it can be challenging to navigate this space and choose appropriate techniques for a given context. Addressing this issue, this paper examines the recent literature on security and privacy of m-Health applications, using a scoping review methodology. It analyses data security and privacy evaluation techniques and frameworks that have been proposed for mHealth applications, as well as relevant research-based design recommendations. This work consolidates recent research on the topic to support researchers, app designers, end users, and healthcare professionals in designing, evaluating, recommending and adopting mHealth applications.

Mobile health monitoring based studies for diabetes mellitus: a review

“…Here, we summarize the main challenges and possible future trends for mHealth based diabetes monitoring:  The effectiveness and performance of mHealth applications for monitoring diabetes have to be evaluated further [90].  In the development stage for mHealth application, patients' safety and privacy have to be taken in consideration as a high design priority [91].  Advanced digital technologies should be applied for diabetes healthcare industry such as insulin delivery systems and insulin pumps [92].…”

Evaluating evaluation frameworks: a scoping review of frameworks for assessing health apps

“…Our work is not the first to compare app evaluation frameworks. Recently, several reviews have compared how different mobile health app evaluation models address privacy, 11 12 14 and another database ( https://search.appcensus.io/ ) focuses exclusively on compiling privacy assessments of Android apps. We chose to exclude app evaluation frameworks that focused exclusively on in-depth privacy considerations and were unusable by a clinician or layperson as our goal was more comprehensive app evaluation.…”

“…Recent systematic reviews have illustrated the growing number of evaluation tools for digital health devices, including mobile health apps. [9][10][11] Given the rapidly evolving health app space and the need to understand what aspects are considered in evaluation frameworks, we have sought to survey the landscape of existing frameworks. Our goal was to compare the categories and questions composing other frameworks to (1) identify common elements between them, (2) identify if gaps in evaluation frameworks have improved since 2018 and (3) assess how reflective our team's MIND framework is in the current landscape.…”

Systematic Review and Scientific Rating of Commercial Apps Available in India for Diabetes Prevention

“…While we were able to identify two high-quality commercial apps, there is, at present, no evidence available for their efficacy in prevention of T2D. Hence, it is recommended that app developers follow a step wise approach to developing any app: define the problem and end user, (2) review the literature extensively, (3) transform information to knowledge, (4) have a proper security and privacy policy, and (5) evaluate usability and efficacy through scientific means [26, 27]. Another important recommendation to mhealth app developers is that while culturally/linguistically adapting an app, it would be best to have a central base application in which app users could just select language etc.…”