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Cited by 173Mobile Health and mHealth ApplicationsDigital Mental Health InterventionsMobile Learning in Education

Issues in mHealth: Findings From Key Informant Interviews

Open access
Whittaker, Robyn·2012·Journal of Medical Internet Research
DOI 10.2196/jmir.1989PMC PMC3510768
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: mHealth is enjoying considerable interest and private investment in the United States. A small but growing body of evidence indicates some promise in supporting healthy behavior change and self-management of long-term conditions. The unique benefits mobile phones bring to health initiatives, such as direct access to health information regardless of time or location, may create specific issues for the implementation of such initiatives. Other issues may be shared with general health information technology developments. OBJECTIVE: To determine the important issues facing the implementation of mHealth from the perspective of those within the US health system and those working in mHealth in the United States. METHODS: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 27 key informants from across the health and mHealth sectors in the United States. Interviewees were approached directly following an environmental scan of mHealth in the United States or recommendation by those working in mHealth. RESULTS: The most common issues were privacy and data security, funding, a lack of good examples of the efficacy and cost effectiveness of mHealth in practice, and the need for more high-quality research. The issues are outlined and categorized according to the environment within which they predominantly occur: policy and regulatory environments; the wireless industry; the health system; existing mHealth practice; and research. CONCLUSIONS: Many of these issues could be addressed by making the most of the current US health reform environment, developing a strategic and coordinated approach, and seeking to improve mHealth practice.

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  • WHP apps can be adapted to target groups and individualised to suit specific customers, so they can reach diverse groups.

    “One advantage of these apps is that they can be adapted to target groups and individualised to suit specific customers; thus, they can reach diverse groups [14, 15].”

    From Advantages and disadvantages of mobile applications for workplace health promotion: A scoping review (2024) · cites this paper as [15]

    The Discussion’s Conclusions (page not provided) describe the opportunity to reach widespread populations with individually tailored mHealth programs. That supports the general idea of tailoring and broad reach, but the paper does not establish this specifically for workplace health promotion (WHP) apps or show that such apps reach diverse groups. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Efforts to secure ongoing funding are an important issue in mHealth implementation.

    “Efforts to secure ongoing funding are an important issue in mHealth implementation [25,43].”

    From Successful Organizational Strategies to Sustain Use of A-CHESS: A Mobile Intervention for Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorders (2015) · cites this paper as [43]

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [40]Consumer Health Information Corporation 2010 2011-11-06 Motivating Patients to Use Smartphone Health Apps http://www.consumer-health.com/press/2008/NewsReleaseSmartPhoneApps.php
  2. [42]Anonymous US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, National Institutes of Health 2011 8 16 2011-11-06 mHealth: Workshop on “mHealth Evidence” http://obssr.od.nih.gov/scientific_areas/methodology/mhealth/mhealth-workshop.aspx

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Authors
Whittaker, R.
Affiliations
University of Auckland (NZ)
Corresponding author
Whittaker, Robyn
ORCID
Whittaker, Robyn
Venue
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Publisher
JMIR Publications Inc.
Published
2012-10-02
Volume
14
Issue
5
Pages
e129
ISSN
1438-8871 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2196/jmir.1989
PMC
PMC3510768
OpenAlex
W2044218017
Cited by
173
References
30
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 11
FWCI
27.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Journal of Medical Internet Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Commonwealth Fund
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Mobile Learning in Education
Keywords
mobile health, privacy and data security, funding, cost-effectiveness, health policy and regulation, wireless industry, health system integration, health behavior change, health information technology
MeSH terms
Interviews as Topic, United States, Access to Information, Electronic Health Records

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