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Smartphone Apps for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies: Systematic Review and Evaluation of Content

BACKGROUND: Hematological malignancies (HMs) are a heterogeneous group of cancers representing a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The chronification of HMs and the increasing use of smartphones may lead patients to seek their current unmet needs through mobile health apps. OBJECTIVE: Th...

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Autores principales: Báez Gutiérrez, Nerea, Rodríguez Ramallo, Héctor, Fernández González, Marcos, Abdel-Kader Martín, Laila
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9533204/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36125860
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/35851
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author Báez Gutiérrez, Nerea
Rodríguez Ramallo, Héctor
Fernández González, Marcos
Abdel-Kader Martín, Laila
author_facet Báez Gutiérrez, Nerea
Rodríguez Ramallo, Héctor
Fernández González, Marcos
Abdel-Kader Martín, Laila
author_sort Báez Gutiérrez, Nerea
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Hematological malignancies (HMs) are a heterogeneous group of cancers representing a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The chronification of HMs and the increasing use of smartphones may lead patients to seek their current unmet needs through mobile health apps. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this review was to identify and assess the quality of smartphone apps aimed at patients diagnosed with HMs. METHODS: A systematic search of apps that were aimed at patients diagnosed with HMs, accessed from a Spain IP address, and were available on the iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play) platforms was conducted in November 2021. The search terms used were “hematology,” “blood cancer,” “leukemia,” “lymphoma,” and “myeloma” apps in English, Spanish, or both languages. The identified apps were downloaded and analyzed independently by 2 reviewers. Information about general app characteristics was collected. The Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) was used to assess quality. The resulting parameter of the analyses, the mean score of the apps, was compared by Student t test. RESULTS: Overall, 18 apps were identified; 7 were available on Android, 5 were available on iOS, and 6 were available on both platforms. All included apps were free; 3 were published in 2021, and among the apps published before 2021, only 6 were updated in 2021. Most (16/18, 89%) of the apps were aimed at patients with leukemia or lymphoma (16). The primary purposes of the apps were to provide general information about the condition (16/18, 89%) and monitor symptoms and clinical parameters (11/18, 61%). Health care professionals contributed to the development of 50% (9/18) of apps; 6 were owned and supported by scientific societies, and 3 were developed with the participation of health care professionals. The mean MARS score for the overall quality of the apps was 3.1 (SD 1.0). The engagement and aesthetics subscales were the lowest rated subscales, with only 44% (8/18) and 67% (12/18), respectively, of the apps obtaining acceptable scores. None of the included apps proved clinical efficacy through clinical trials in patients with HMs. Statistically significant differences were found in the MARS scores between operating systems (+1.0, P=.003) in favor of iOS apps. The participation of health care professionals in the development of the apps did not have a statistically significant impact on the MARS scores. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic search and evaluation identified few acceptable quality mobile apps for patients with HMs. Current and future apps for patients with HMs should provide evidence-based valuable information, improve user engagement, incorporate functions according to patient preferences, and generate evidence regarding the efficacy of app use by patients with HMs.
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spelling pubmed-95332042022-10-06 Smartphone Apps for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies: Systematic Review and Evaluation of Content Báez Gutiérrez, Nerea Rodríguez Ramallo, Héctor Fernández González, Marcos Abdel-Kader Martín, Laila JMIR Mhealth Uhealth Original Paper BACKGROUND: Hematological malignancies (HMs) are a heterogeneous group of cancers representing a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The chronification of HMs and the increasing use of smartphones may lead patients to seek their current unmet needs through mobile health apps. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this review was to identify and assess the quality of smartphone apps aimed at patients diagnosed with HMs. METHODS: A systematic search of apps that were aimed at patients diagnosed with HMs, accessed from a Spain IP address, and were available on the iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play) platforms was conducted in November 2021. The search terms used were “hematology,” “blood cancer,” “leukemia,” “lymphoma,” and “myeloma” apps in English, Spanish, or both languages. The identified apps were downloaded and analyzed independently by 2 reviewers. Information about general app characteristics was collected. The Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) was used to assess quality. The resulting parameter of the analyses, the mean score of the apps, was compared by Student t test. RESULTS: Overall, 18 apps were identified; 7 were available on Android, 5 were available on iOS, and 6 were available on both platforms. All included apps were free; 3 were published in 2021, and among the apps published before 2021, only 6 were updated in 2021. Most (16/18, 89%) of the apps were aimed at patients with leukemia or lymphoma (16). The primary purposes of the apps were to provide general information about the condition (16/18, 89%) and monitor symptoms and clinical parameters (11/18, 61%). Health care professionals contributed to the development of 50% (9/18) of apps; 6 were owned and supported by scientific societies, and 3 were developed with the participation of health care professionals. The mean MARS score for the overall quality of the apps was 3.1 (SD 1.0). The engagement and aesthetics subscales were the lowest rated subscales, with only 44% (8/18) and 67% (12/18), respectively, of the apps obtaining acceptable scores. None of the included apps proved clinical efficacy through clinical trials in patients with HMs. Statistically significant differences were found in the MARS scores between operating systems (+1.0, P=.003) in favor of iOS apps. The participation of health care professionals in the development of the apps did not have a statistically significant impact on the MARS scores. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic search and evaluation identified few acceptable quality mobile apps for patients with HMs. Current and future apps for patients with HMs should provide evidence-based valuable information, improve user engagement, incorporate functions according to patient preferences, and generate evidence regarding the efficacy of app use by patients with HMs. JMIR Publications 2022-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9533204/ /pubmed/36125860 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/35851 Text en ©Nerea Báez Gutiérrez, Héctor Rodríguez Ramallo, Marcos Fernández González, Laila Abdel-Kader Martín. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (https://mhealth.jmir.org), 20.09.2022. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://mhealth.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Báez Gutiérrez, Nerea
Rodríguez Ramallo, Héctor
Fernández González, Marcos
Abdel-Kader Martín, Laila
Smartphone Apps for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies: Systematic Review and Evaluation of Content
title Smartphone Apps for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies: Systematic Review and Evaluation of Content
title_full Smartphone Apps for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies: Systematic Review and Evaluation of Content
title_fullStr Smartphone Apps for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies: Systematic Review and Evaluation of Content
title_full_unstemmed Smartphone Apps for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies: Systematic Review and Evaluation of Content
title_short Smartphone Apps for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies: Systematic Review and Evaluation of Content
title_sort smartphone apps for patients with hematologic malignancies: systematic review and evaluation of content
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9533204/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36125860
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/35851
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