End-User Recommendations for Safer Use of Mobile Health Applications (mHealth Apps)

Background: The use of health apps promises to be a medium that is bound to contribute to the improvement of patient care as well as a useful complement to people`s health and well-being activities. Currently different guidelines have been established for developers and designers but not for the general public on how to decide and use mobile health applications. The empowerment of patients in using mobile applications should be a key point. Objectives: to emphasize the need to provide specific guidelines and general recommendations for the safer use of health apps by end-users (patients and the general public) and to empower them when choosing and installing health apps. Methods: Search strategies based on the combination of the following keywords: patient, general public, end-user, mobile health apps, applications, guidelines and recommendations, were performed in the 10th February 2014, using Google Scholar, PubMed, Google, Bing and Yahoo!. The first 100 results displayed in these search engines were reviewed in order to find information related to specific guidelines for the general public in using health apps. PubMed provided 32 articles. Based on the analysis of the information obtained and the experience in the field, the authors defined specific recommendations for the general public in using health apps. Results: Information related to recommendations specifically addressed to patients or the general public were not identified in Bing, Yahoo!! and Google Scholar, not giving them relevant information on how to decide the installation of a health app and critical aspects after installing and when using them. In Google appeared one result with a brochure with some recommendations for patients. In PubMed there were no relevant articles. Discussion and conclusions: There is a particular concern about the number and quality of health mobile applications in the different stores and their potential impact in healthcare and above all how the health apps should be used by the general public and patients. The searches performed displayed a lot of guidelines and recommendations specifically addressed to developers, designers, health organizations and enterprises linked with the design and manufacture of health apps but not for end-users. Surprisingly it was only possible to find one brochure with general recommendations for the general publicThis information helped authors to draw up the recommendations proposed. It is advisable to provide specific guidelines in order to empower the general public and patients when deciding and using health apps. The recommendations proposed include different important points that end-users have to consider before downloading and installing a specific health app and when using mobile health applications. Recommendations: General Aspects: app origin (store), number of downloads, users’ evaluations, target and function, need of Internet connection to operate, developer identification, global or nationwide basis use of the health app service or information, recommended by health professionals. Technical and Content Aspects: language, people and health professionals in charge identified, scientific evidence or external accreditation present, update and version, full help section, disability profile options (visual and tactile), contact information, type of use of personal data in detail (cloud or local). []