Abstract :
[en] Background Mobile health (mHealth) is a growing sector
of technology used in clinical practice. With the ubiquity of
this technology in today’s society, the promise it holds for
use in medicine is vast.
Purpose To conduct a study examining the current research
and clinical trials involving mHealth applications
used by human participants worldwide.
Design Wesearched the ClinicalTrials.gov database for all
original trials examining the role of mHealth applications
and their use internationally and in varying clinical settings.
Results Fifty trials were included. Eighty-eight percent of
included trials were initiated from 2012 to 2014, with only
20 % of all included trials currently completed. The
overwhelming majority of trials originated from the USA
and other Western or European countries. There was a
broad distribution of the trials with regard to study focus
and purpose, involving applications in behaviour change,
treatment adherence, diagnosis, disease management and
patient-reported outcomes. Most included trials were performed
in the setting of chronic diseases.
Conclusion Use of mHealth applications is a growing
field with broad implications and indications in clinical
practice. This trend of increasing trials, studies
and pervasiveness of technology in health care is a
more recent development. Evidence in support of this
technology is unclear from the trials included in this
study; however, mHealth applications, devices and
technology most assuredly have a role in chronic
disease management and work to improve patient
engagement.
Scopus citations®
without self-citations
11