Extending the framework for mobile health information systems Research: A content analysis

Abstract Whilst researchers and professionals recognise that mobile health (M-health) systems offer unprecedented opportunities, most existing work has comprised individual project-based developments in specialised areas. Existing review articles generally utilise medical literature and categories: none investigates M-health from an information systems (IS) design point of view. Identifying application areas, design issues and IS research techniques will demonstrate models, issues, approaches and gaps to inform future research. A comprehensive analysis of the literature from this viewpoint is thus valuable, both for theoretical progression and for guiding real-world innovative system developments. Drawing from key IS and healthcare multidisciplinary journals we analyse recent (2010–2016) articles concerning M-health application developments and their associated design or development issues, with particular focus on the use of contemporary research methods. Our analysis suggests that M-health is an emerging field to which, although underused, contemporary approaches such as design science research are particularly appropriate. We identify eight application categories, eleven design issues (security, privacy, literacy, accessibility, acceptability, reliability, usability, confidentiality, integrity, knowledge sharing and flexibility) as well as the stakeholders and development techniques involved. This goes beyond previous frameworks, and theoretically integrates the central role of IS design within the sub-field.