Cargando…

mHealth in Urology: A Review of Experts’ Involvement in App Development

INTRODUCTION: Smartphones are increasingly playing a role in healthcare and previous studies assessing medical applications (apps) have raised concerns about lack of expert involvement and low content accuracy. However, there are no such studies in Urology. We reviewed Urology apps with the aim of a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pereira-Azevedo, Nuno, Carrasquinho, Eduardo, Cardoso de Oliveira, Eduardo, Cavadas, Vitor, Osório, Luís, Fraga, Avelino, Castelo-Branco, Miguel, Roobol, Monique J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4436179/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25984916
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125547
_version_ 1782372023687708672
author Pereira-Azevedo, Nuno
Carrasquinho, Eduardo
Cardoso de Oliveira, Eduardo
Cavadas, Vitor
Osório, Luís
Fraga, Avelino
Castelo-Branco, Miguel
Roobol, Monique J.
author_facet Pereira-Azevedo, Nuno
Carrasquinho, Eduardo
Cardoso de Oliveira, Eduardo
Cavadas, Vitor
Osório, Luís
Fraga, Avelino
Castelo-Branco, Miguel
Roobol, Monique J.
author_sort Pereira-Azevedo, Nuno
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Smartphones are increasingly playing a role in healthcare and previous studies assessing medical applications (apps) have raised concerns about lack of expert involvement and low content accuracy. However, there are no such studies in Urology. We reviewed Urology apps with the aim of assessing the level of participation of healthcare professionals (HCP) and scientific Urology associations in their development. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A systematic search was performed on PubMed, Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store, for Urology apps, available in English. Apps were reviewed by three graders to determine the app’s platform, target customer, developer, app type, app category, price and the participation of a HCP or a scientific Urology association in the development. RESULTS: The search yielded 372 apps, of which 150 were specific for Urology. A fifth of all apps had no HCP involvement (20.7%) and only a third had been developed with a scientific Urology association (34.7%). The lowest percentage of HCP (13.4%) and urological association (1.9%) involvement was in apps designed for the general population. Furthermore, there was no contribution from an Urology society in "Electronic Medical Record" nor in "Patient Information" apps. A limitation of the study is that only Android and iOS apps were reviewed. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the increasing Mobile Health (mHealth) market, this is the first study that demonstrates the lack of expert participation in the design of Urology apps, particularly in apps designed for the general public. Until clear regulation is enforced, the urological community should help regulate app development. Maintaining a register of certified apps or issuing an official scientific seal of approval could improve overall app quality. We propose that urologists become stakeholders in mHealth, shaping future app design and promoting peer-review app validation.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4436179
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-44361792015-05-27 mHealth in Urology: A Review of Experts’ Involvement in App Development Pereira-Azevedo, Nuno Carrasquinho, Eduardo Cardoso de Oliveira, Eduardo Cavadas, Vitor Osório, Luís Fraga, Avelino Castelo-Branco, Miguel Roobol, Monique J. PLoS One Research Article INTRODUCTION: Smartphones are increasingly playing a role in healthcare and previous studies assessing medical applications (apps) have raised concerns about lack of expert involvement and low content accuracy. However, there are no such studies in Urology. We reviewed Urology apps with the aim of assessing the level of participation of healthcare professionals (HCP) and scientific Urology associations in their development. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A systematic search was performed on PubMed, Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store, for Urology apps, available in English. Apps were reviewed by three graders to determine the app’s platform, target customer, developer, app type, app category, price and the participation of a HCP or a scientific Urology association in the development. RESULTS: The search yielded 372 apps, of which 150 were specific for Urology. A fifth of all apps had no HCP involvement (20.7%) and only a third had been developed with a scientific Urology association (34.7%). The lowest percentage of HCP (13.4%) and urological association (1.9%) involvement was in apps designed for the general population. Furthermore, there was no contribution from an Urology society in "Electronic Medical Record" nor in "Patient Information" apps. A limitation of the study is that only Android and iOS apps were reviewed. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the increasing Mobile Health (mHealth) market, this is the first study that demonstrates the lack of expert participation in the design of Urology apps, particularly in apps designed for the general public. Until clear regulation is enforced, the urological community should help regulate app development. Maintaining a register of certified apps or issuing an official scientific seal of approval could improve overall app quality. We propose that urologists become stakeholders in mHealth, shaping future app design and promoting peer-review app validation. Public Library of Science 2015-05-18 /pmc/articles/PMC4436179/ /pubmed/25984916 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125547 Text en © 2015 Pereira-Azevedo et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Pereira-Azevedo, Nuno
Carrasquinho, Eduardo
Cardoso de Oliveira, Eduardo
Cavadas, Vitor
Osório, Luís
Fraga, Avelino
Castelo-Branco, Miguel
Roobol, Monique J.
mHealth in Urology: A Review of Experts’ Involvement in App Development
title mHealth in Urology: A Review of Experts’ Involvement in App Development
title_full mHealth in Urology: A Review of Experts’ Involvement in App Development
title_fullStr mHealth in Urology: A Review of Experts’ Involvement in App Development
title_full_unstemmed mHealth in Urology: A Review of Experts’ Involvement in App Development
title_short mHealth in Urology: A Review of Experts’ Involvement in App Development
title_sort mhealth in urology: a review of experts’ involvement in app development
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4436179/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25984916
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125547
work_keys_str_mv AT pereiraazevedonuno mhealthinurologyareviewofexpertsinvolvementinappdevelopment
AT carrasquinhoeduardo mhealthinurologyareviewofexpertsinvolvementinappdevelopment
AT cardosodeoliveiraeduardo mhealthinurologyareviewofexpertsinvolvementinappdevelopment
AT cavadasvitor mhealthinurologyareviewofexpertsinvolvementinappdevelopment
AT osorioluis mhealthinurologyareviewofexpertsinvolvementinappdevelopment
AT fragaavelino mhealthinurologyareviewofexpertsinvolvementinappdevelopment
AT castelobrancomiguel mhealthinurologyareviewofexpertsinvolvementinappdevelopment
AT roobolmoniquej mhealthinurologyareviewofexpertsinvolvementinappdevelopment