Evaluation of a semiautomated App Store analysis for the identification of health apps for cardiac arrhythmias

BACKGROUND: Smartphone apps are increasingly utilised by patients and physicians for medical purposes. Thus, numerous applications are provided on the App Store platforms. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to establish a novel, expanded approach of a semiautomated retrospective App Store analysis (SARASA) to identify and characterise health apps in the context of cardiac arrhythmias. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An automated total read-out of the “Medical” category of Apple’s German App Store was performed in December 2022 by analysing the developer-provided descriptions and other metadata using a semiautomated multilevel approach. Search terms were defined, based on which the textual information of the total extraction results was automatically filtered. RESULTS: A total of 435 of 31,564 apps were identified in the context of cardiac arrhythmias. Of those, 81.4% were found to deal with education, decision support, or disease management, and 26.2% (additionally) provided the opportunity to derive information on heart rhythm. The apps were intended for healthcare professionals in 55.9%, students in 17.5%, and/or patients in 15.9%. In 31.5%, the target population was not specified in the description texts. In all, 108 apps (24.8%) provided a telemedicine treatment approach; 83.7% of the description texts did not reveal any information on medical product status; 8.3% of the apps indicated that they have and 8.0% that they do not have medical product status. CONCLUSION: Through the supplemented SARASA method, health apps in the context of cardiac arrhythmias could be identified and assigned to the target categories. Clinicians and patients have a wide choice of apps, although the app description texts do not provide sufficient information about the intended use and quality.