JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The last decade has witnessed the prosperity of various categories of mobile health applications (mHealth apps) that radically change individuals’ daily lifestyle, enabling them to independently monitor their health and activities. However, developing complex mHealth apps is challenging due to their dependence on built-in technologies and remote services.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to gather empirical evidence from the literature to systematically identify the characteristics and challenges of mHealth apps and how these apps have been evaluated in research papers, as well as to evaluate existing mHealth apps and suggest future research directions.

Methods:

We conducted a systematic literature review of mHealth apps from different data sources. The research was divided into three main phases to achieve the expected goal. The first phase involved reviewing peer-reviewed academic research papers from digital libraries, and the second included reviewing and evaluating apps available in British Android and iOS app stores. The review was based on a formal protocol, and the evaluation was based on apps’ quality using the Mobile Application Rating Scale. Finally, the third phase involved analysing open-source apps from GitHub. The study included analysis, synthesis, and reporting of gathered data regarding the design and implementation of mHealth apps.

Results:

In total, 44 research papers, 42 app store apps, and 25 open-source apps were analysed. We specified the characteristics and challenges, as well as the differences and similarities of mHealth apps. We found that mHealth apps have some common characteristics but with different percentages in each phase. In general, they are similar in their focus, user interface components, structure, and security features. The apps of the second and third phase are similar in the case of crucial functionalities and logging mechanisms. However, the apps differentiate in the aspects of machine learning algorithms, service and technologies, architecture, and development approach. Such diversity requires additional time, effort, and cost for developing new mHealth apps.

Conclusions:

There has been a constant increase in development of mHealth apps in recent years. This study outlines key characteristics and challenges and proposes some recommendations for researchers and developers to ease development of effective mHealth apps. Therefore, we suggest filling a research gap by presenting a reliable framework that facilitates and accelerates the development process of mHealth apps and supports the latest technologies and features.