Towards a Framework for Evaluating Mobile Mental Health Apps
Towards a Framework for Evaluating Mobile Mental Health Apps
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DOI：
10.1089/tmj.2015.0002
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发表时间：
2015-12-01
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Yellowlees, Peter
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chan, Steven;Torous, John;Yellowlees, Peter
导语：手机在社会上无处不在，大多数精神病人都拥有手机，包括那些患有严重精神疾病的人。它们作为一个平台的多功能性可以在沟通、自我监测、自我管理、诊断和治疗领域扩展精神健康服务。然而，公开可用的应用程序(APP)的有效性和可靠性尚未得到证明。许多文章指出，有必要对智能手机应用的有效性和临床实用性进行严格评估，这些应用基本上不受监管。专业的临床组织不提供评估移动应用的指南。材料和方法：评估医疗应用需要指南和框架。从工程学和信息学文献以及类似领域的跨学科组织，如远程医疗和医疗保健信息学，存在大量的框架和评估标准。结果：我们提出的标准不仅可供患者和提供者用于评估智能手机应用程序，还可用于评估可穿戴设备和智能手表应用程序的心理健康。可以通过应用程序的有用性、可用性以及集成和基础设施来评估应用程序。应用程序可以根据它们在精神健康服务提供者工作流程的一个或多个阶段的可用性进行分类。结论：最终，需要领导来开发一个描述应用程序的框架，患者和精神健康提供者都需要指导方针。
Introduction:Mobile phones are ubiquitous in society and owned by a majority of psychiatric patients, including those with severe mental illness. Their versatility as a platform can extend mental health services in the areas of communication, self-monitoring, self-management, diagnosis, and treatment. However, the efficacy and reliability of publicly available applications (apps) have yet to be demonstrated. Numerous articles have noted the need for rigorous evaluation of the efficacy and clinical utility of smartphone apps, which are largely unregulated. Professional clinical organizations do not provide guidelines for evaluating mobile apps.Materials and Methods:Guidelines and frameworks are needed to evaluate medical apps. Numerous frameworks and evaluation criteria exist from the engineering and informatics literature, as well as interdisciplinary organizations in similar fields such as telemedicine and healthcare informatics.Results:We propose criteria for both patients and providers to use in assessing not just smartphone apps, but also wearable devices and smartwatch apps for mental health. Apps can be evaluated by their usefulness, usability, and integration and infrastructure. Apps can be categorized by their usability in one or more stages of a mental health provider's workflow.Conclusions:Ultimately, leadership is needed to develop a framework for describing apps, and guidelines are needed for both patients and mental health providers.