title: Smartphone applications for seizure management.
abstract: Technological advancements continue to provide innovative ways of enhancing patient care in medicine. In particular, the growing popularity of smartphone technology has seen the recent emergence of a myriad of healthcare applications (or apps) that promise to help shape the way in which health information is delivered to people worldwide. While limited research already exists on a range of such apps, our study is the first to examine the salient features of smartphone applications as they apply to the area of seizure management. For the purposes of this review, we conducted a search of the official online application stores of the five major smartphone platforms: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Nokia-Symbian. Apps were included if they reported to contain some information or tools relating to seizure management and excluded if they were aimed exclusively at health professionals. A total of 28 applications met these criteria. Overall, we found an increasing number of epilepsy apps available on the smartphone market, but with only a minority offering comprehensive educational information alongside tools such as seizure diaries, medication tracking and/or video recording.
authors.affiliation: Northern Health, Australia Puneet.Pandher@nh.org.au.
authors.forename: Puneet Singh
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Pandher
authors.affiliation: Goulburn Valley Health, Australia.
authors.forename: Karamdeep Kaur
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Bhullar
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D019468:Disease Management; D006801:Humans; D063731:Mobile Applications / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012640:Seizures; D012648:Self Care; D012656:Self-Help Devices; D000068997:Smartphone
keywords: assistive technologies; ehealth; information technology healthcare evaluation; mobile health; telecare