Approaches to Mobile Health Evaluation: A Comparative Study

ABSTRACT

A major challenge faced by mobile health (mHealth) is identifying an evaluation technique which provides a rigorous evaluation while capturing the unique characteristics of the intervention. This study investigates traditional and emerging methods of mHealth evaluation, identifying existing gaps. This research is a useful first step toward developing an evaluation technique which will facilitate implementation and enable mHealth to reach its potential in accelerating socio-economic development, particularly in Low and Middle Income countries (LMICs).

KEYWORDS:

• Mhealth (mobile health)
• evaluation
• randomized controlled trials (RCTs)
• comparison
• socio-economic development

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Supporting LIFE project (305292) which is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the European Commission www.supportinglife.eu.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Samantha Dick

Samantha Dick is a researcher at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. She holds a BSc in Public Health and earned an MSc by research in the area of mobile health (mHealth) evaluation from the Health Information Systems Research Center (HISRC) at UCC.

Yvonne O’Connor

Dr Yvonne O’Connor is a lecturer in Cork University Business School, University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. She is also a senior researcher within the Health Information Systems Research Center (HISRC) at UCC. Her research focuses on research focuses on the introduction, sustained use and ethical implications of information systems in healthcare.

Ciara Heavin

Dr Ciara Heavin is a Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems at Cork University Business School, University College Cork, Ireland. Her research focuses on opportunities for using information systems (IS) in the global healthcare ecosystem and in digital transformation. Dr Heavin has directed funded research in the investigation, development, and implementation of innovative technology solutions in the health/healthcare domain. She has published articles in several top international IS journals and conference proceedings. Dr Heavin has coauthored two books with Daniel J. Power: Decision Support, Analytics, and Business Intelligence and Data-Based Decision Making and Digital Transformation.