Overview of mHealth Systematic Reviews and PCORI Studies (2)

This evidence map provides an overview of the characteristics of available systematic reviews and ongoing PCORI studies that have evaluated mobile health (mHealth) interventions in the context of self-management of chronic disease by the type and functional purpose of mHealth intervention. Read more about a Using This Map and overarching Research Insights gained from this map. For the best map interaction experience, we recommend viewing this evidence map on desktop-sized devices in a Chrome, Safari, or Firefox browser.

Notes
The definition of mHealth functionalities are:
Alert – Send alert or reminder to the user
Educate – Provide information in a variety of formats (text, photo, video) or provide instruction to the user
Counsel – Provide guidance based on user-entered information (e.g., recommend a physician consultation or course of treatment)
Monitor – Automatic detection of patient behavior/activity or clinical measures by a monitoring device
Record – Capture user-entered data
Other – Speech generation
The ECRI Institute-Penn Medicine Evidence-based Practice Center developed this map for PCORI.
 

Using This Map

This map summarizes 99 systematic reviews and 19 PCORI studies.

Axes: The map presents chronic conditions (e.g., cancer, diabetes) on the x-axis (horizontal line) and the type of mHealth functionality (e.g., alert, monitor) on the y-axis (vertical line on the right).

Bubbles: The bubbles represent 99 systematic reviews that evaluate mHealth interventions for a given category of chronic disease. The black circle outlines represent where at least one of 19 total PCORI-funded studies of mHealth interventions are available for a given chronic disease category.

Different bubble colors represent different categories of mHealth interventions (e.g., text messaging, mobile applications). This allows for the creation of packed bubbles (e.g., multiple smaller colored bubbles within a lighter shaded circle), which describe specific subsets of mHealth interventions that are available for a given mHealth functionality and chronic condition. Hover over a bubble to obtain more detailed information about the evidence available for that chronic condition category. For example, for cancer/monitor, there is one PCORI study on mobile applications with a link to its webpage, as well as one systematic review that examined text messaging and other forms of mHealth interventions.

Filters: The filters above the map allow for customization of the presented data in the map by inclusion of vulnerable populations, age range, and outcome assessed.

Research Insights

  • Most mHealth functions (i.e., alert, educate, counsel, monitor) were relatively well-distributed across the systematic reviews, PCORI studies, and various chronic diseases.
  • Fewer systematic reviews and PCORI studies evaluated mHealth interventions with record functions.

Posted: March 6, 2019

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