Supporting patients’ workload through wearable devices and mobile health applications, a systematic literature review

Abstract

Patients face a challenging workload in their course of care. In this study, we investigate the impact of using mobile health technologies in supporting this workload and identify the system challenges of its application through a systematic review of the literature published in the last two decades following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines PRISMA guidelines. Twenty-two studies that satisfied the inclusion criteria were included. The review revealed various mobile health and wearable devices used to support mental demand, physical demand, frustration, and performance. Better outcomes were related to mobile health use in healthcare for patients in different settings. There were no applications of health that supported the temporal demand of patients. Some populations, such as cancer patients, need more than only physical demand. Mhealth devices are important in supporting the patients’ workload in their daily activities and clinical settings.

Practitioner summary: This review study shows the importance of mHealth and wearables in supporting patients’ workload (physical, mental, emotional) but not the temporal load.

Keywords:

• Mobile health
• mhealth
• wearable devices
• workload
• mental demand
• physical demand
• temporal demand
• frustration
• performance
• patient

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.