The Effectiveness of M-Health Technologies for Improving Health and Health Services: A Systematic Review Protocol

Posted by VivianOnano on Sep 30, 2011
Author: 
Free,Caroline; Gemma Phillips; Lambert Felix; Leandro Galli; Vikram Patel; Philip Edwards.
Publication Type: 
Report/White paper
Publication Date: 
Oct 2010
Publication language: 
English
Abstract: 

The application of mobile computing and communication technology is rapidly expanding in the fields of health care and public health. This systematic review will summarise the evidence for the effectiveness of mobile technology interventions for improving health and health service outcomes (M-Health) around the world.

 

To be included in the review interventions must aim to improve or promote health or health service use and quality, employing any mobile computing and communication technology. This includes:

(1) interventions designed to improve diagnosis, investigation, treatment, monitoring and management of disease;

(2) interventions to deliver treatment or disease management programmes to patients, health promotion interventions, andinterventions designed to improve treatment compliance; and

(3) interventions to improve health care processes e.g. appointment attendance, result notification, vaccination reminders.

 

A comprehensive, electronic search strategy will be used to identify controlled studies, published since 1990, and indexed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Global Health, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, or the UK NHSHealth Technology Assessment database. The search strategy will include terms (and synonyms) for the following mobile electronic devices (MEDs) and a range of compatible media: mobile phone; personal digital assistant (PDA); handheld computer (e.g. tablet PC); PDA phone (e.g. BlackBerry, Palm Pilot); Smartphone; enterprise digital assistant; portable media player (i.e. MP3 or MP4 player); handheld video game console. No terms for health or health service outcomes will be included, to ensure that all applications of mobile technology in public health and healthservices are identified.

 

Bibliographies of primary studies and review articles meeting the inclusion criteria will besearched manually to identify further eligible studies. Data on objective and self-reported outcomes and study quality will be independently extracted by two review authors. Where there are sufficient numbers of similar interventions, we will calculate and report pooled risk ratios or standardised mean differences using meta-analysis.

 

This systematic review will provide recommendations on the use of mobile computing and communication technology in health care and public health and will guide future work on intervention development and primary research in this field.

Countries: 
Upload Paper: 
Citation: 
Free et al.: The effectiveness of M-health technologies for improving health and health services: a systematic review protocol. BMC Research Notes 2010 3:250.
The Effectiveness of M-Health Technologies for Improving Health and Health Services: A Systematic Review Protocol data sheet 1621 Views
Author: 
Free,Caroline; Gemma Phillips; Lambert Felix; Leandro Galli; Vikram Patel; Philip Edwards.
Publication Type: 
Report/White paper
Publication Date: 
Oct 2010
Publication language: 
English
Abstract: 

The application of mobile computing and communication technology is rapidly expanding in the fields of health care and public health. This systematic review will summarise the evidence for the effectiveness of mobile technology interventions for improving health and health service outcomes (M-Health) around the world.

 

To be included in the review interventions must aim to improve or promote health or health service use and quality, employing any mobile computing and communication technology. This includes:

(1) interventions designed to improve diagnosis, investigation, treatment, monitoring and management of disease;

(2) interventions to deliver treatment or disease management programmes to patients, health promotion interventions, andinterventions designed to improve treatment compliance; and

(3) interventions to improve health care processes e.g. appointment attendance, result notification, vaccination reminders.

 

A comprehensive, electronic search strategy will be used to identify controlled studies, published since 1990, and indexed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Global Health, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, or the UK NHSHealth Technology Assessment database. The search strategy will include terms (and synonyms) for the following mobile electronic devices (MEDs) and a range of compatible media: mobile phone; personal digital assistant (PDA); handheld computer (e.g. tablet PC); PDA phone (e.g. BlackBerry, Palm Pilot); Smartphone; enterprise digital assistant; portable media player (i.e. MP3 or MP4 player); handheld video game console. No terms for health or health service outcomes will be included, to ensure that all applications of mobile technology in public health and healthservices are identified.

 

Bibliographies of primary studies and review articles meeting the inclusion criteria will besearched manually to identify further eligible studies. Data on objective and self-reported outcomes and study quality will be independently extracted by two review authors. Where there are sufficient numbers of similar interventions, we will calculate and report pooled risk ratios or standardised mean differences using meta-analysis.

 

This systematic review will provide recommendations on the use of mobile computing and communication technology in health care and public health and will guide future work on intervention development and primary research in this field.

Countries: 
Upload Paper: 
Citation: 
Free et al.: The effectiveness of M-health technologies for improving health and health services: a systematic review protocol. BMC Research Notes 2010 3:250.

Look forward to the

Look forward to the conclusions. When will this study be completed?

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><p><br> <b><i><blockquote>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options