title: mHealth Quality: A Process to Seal the Qualified Mobile Health Apps.
abstract: A large number of mobile health applications (apps) are currently available with a variety of functionalities. The user ratings in the app stores seem not to be reliable to determine the quality of the apps. The traditional methods of evaluation are not suitable for fast paced nature of mobile technology. In this study, we propose a collaborative multidimensional scale to assess the quality of mHealth apps. During our process, the app quality is assessed in various aspects including medical reliability, legal consistency, ethical consistency, usability aspects, personal data privacy and IT security. A hypothetico-deductive approach was used in various working groups to define the audit criteria based on the various use cases that an app could provide. These criteria were then implemented into a web based self-administered questionnaires and the generation of automatic reports were considered. This method is on the one hand specific to each app because it allows to assess each health app according to its offered functionalities. On the other hand, this method is automatic, transferable to all apps and adapted to the dynamic nature of mobile technology.
authors: DMD Santé, Research and development department, Paris, France.
authors: Mobin
authors: M
authors: Yasini
authors: KEOSYS, Scientifical, Ethical & Medical departement, Saint-Herblain, Paris, France.
authors: Jérôme
authors: J
authors: Beranger
authors: Desmarais Avocats, Paris, France.
authors: Pierre
authors: P
authors: Desmarais
authors: DMD Santé, Research and development department, Paris, France.
authors: Lucas
authors: L
authors: Perez
authors: DMD Santé, Research and development department, Paris, France.
authors: Guillaume
authors: G
authors: Marchand
mesh_terms: D003219:Confidentiality; D006801:Humans; D063731:Mobile Applications / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical / Q000379:methods; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000592:standards*; D014584:User-Computer Interface