TY - JOUR
T1 - Conducting a systematic review and evaluation of commercially available mobile applications (apps) on a health-related topic
T2 - The TECH approach and a step-by-step methodological guide
AU - Gasteiger, Norina
AU - Dowding, Dawn
AU - Norman, Gillian
AU - McGarrigle, Lisa
AU - Eost-Telling, Charlotte
AU - Jones, Deborah
AU - Vercell, Amy
AU - Ali, Syed Mustafa
AU - O'Connor, Siobhán
N1 - Funding Information:
NG, DD, GN, CE-T and SMA are funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (NIHR ARC GM). LM is supported by a National Institute for Health and Care Research Senior Investigator Award to Professor Chris Todd (Reference NIHR200299). The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health and Care Research or the Department of Health and Social Care. Grant numbers: N/A.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Authors. All rights reserved.
PY - 2023/6/12
Y1 - 2023/6/12
N2 - Objectives To provide an overview of the methodological considerations for conducting commercial smartphone health app reviews (mHealth reviews), with the aim of systematising the process and supporting high-quality evaluations of mHealth apps. Design Synthesis of our research team's experiences of conducting and publishing various reviews of mHealth apps available on app stores and hand-searching the top medical informatics journals (eg, The Lancet Digital Health, npj Digital Medicine, Journal of Biomedical Informatics and the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association) over the last five years (2018-2022) to identify other app reviews to contribute to the discussion of this method and supporting framework for developing a research (review) question and determining the eligibility criteria. Results We present seven steps to support rigour in conducting reviews of health apps available on the app market: (1) writing a research question or aims, (2) conducting scoping searches and developing the protocol, (3) determining the eligibility criteria using the TECH framework, (4) conducting the final search and screening of health apps, (5) data extraction, (6) quality, functionality and other assessments and (7) analysis and synthesis of findings. We introduce the novel TECH approach to developing review questions and the eligibility criteria, which considers the Target user, Evaluation focus, Connectedness and the Health domain. Patient and public involvement and engagement opportunities are acknowledged, including co-developing the protocol and undertaking quality or usability assessments. Conclusion Commercial mHealth app reviews can provide important insights into the health app market, including the availability of apps and their quality and functionality. We have outlined seven key steps for conducting rigorous health app reviews in addition to the TECH acronym, which can support researchers in writing research questions and determining the eligibility criteria. Future work will include a collaborative effort to develop reporting guidelines and a quality appraisal tool to ensure transparency and quality in systematic app reviews.
AB - Objectives To provide an overview of the methodological considerations for conducting commercial smartphone health app reviews (mHealth reviews), with the aim of systematising the process and supporting high-quality evaluations of mHealth apps. Design Synthesis of our research team's experiences of conducting and publishing various reviews of mHealth apps available on app stores and hand-searching the top medical informatics journals (eg, The Lancet Digital Health, npj Digital Medicine, Journal of Biomedical Informatics and the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association) over the last five years (2018-2022) to identify other app reviews to contribute to the discussion of this method and supporting framework for developing a research (review) question and determining the eligibility criteria. Results We present seven steps to support rigour in conducting reviews of health apps available on the app market: (1) writing a research question or aims, (2) conducting scoping searches and developing the protocol, (3) determining the eligibility criteria using the TECH framework, (4) conducting the final search and screening of health apps, (5) data extraction, (6) quality, functionality and other assessments and (7) analysis and synthesis of findings. We introduce the novel TECH approach to developing review questions and the eligibility criteria, which considers the Target user, Evaluation focus, Connectedness and the Health domain. Patient and public involvement and engagement opportunities are acknowledged, including co-developing the protocol and undertaking quality or usability assessments. Conclusion Commercial mHealth app reviews can provide important insights into the health app market, including the availability of apps and their quality and functionality. We have outlined seven key steps for conducting rigorous health app reviews in addition to the TECH acronym, which can support researchers in writing research questions and determining the eligibility criteria. Future work will include a collaborative effort to develop reporting guidelines and a quality appraisal tool to ensure transparency and quality in systematic app reviews.
KW - health informatics
KW - information technology
KW - statistics & research methods
KW - systematic review
KW - telemedicine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85163153697&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-073283
DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-073283
M3 - Review article
C2 - 37308269
AN - SCOPUS:85163153697
SN - 2044-6055
VL - 13
JO - BMJ Open
JF - BMJ Open
IS - 6
M1 - e073283
ER -
