Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

mHealth taxonomy: a literature survey of mobile health applications

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Health and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There has been tremendous increase in both the different types of Mobile Health (mHealth) applications and the number of applications being created for both the clinical and consumer healthcare space. The rapid proliferation of mHealth applications is creating confusion in the domain among both consumers and healthcare professionals due to uncertainty about reliability, security, regulation, and integration concerns. New applications are being developed faster than researchers, patients, and healthcare professionals can grasp the multiplicity of the mHealth applications and the various ways they can be used. This paper proposes a taxonomy of existing and emerging mHealth applications to help all users understand this domain.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Anonymous. Mobile phones used to gather medical data. Appropr Technol. 2009;36:57–9.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Årsand E, Frøisland DH, Skrøvseth SO, Chomutare T, Tatara N, Hartvigsen G, et al. Mobile health applications to assist patients with diabetes: lessons learned and design implications. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2012;6:1197–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Barton A. The regulation of mobile health applications. BMC Medicine. 2012;10(1):46. doi:10.1186/1741-7015-10-46.

  4. Belknap R, Weis S, Brookens A, Au-Yeung KY, Moon G, DiCarlo L, et al. Feasibility of an ingestible sensor-based system for monitoring adherence to tuberculosis therapy. PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e53373. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Blumrosen G, Avisdris N, Kupfer R, Rubinsky B. C-SMART: efficient seamless cellular phone based patient monitoring system. IEEE Int Symp World Wirel Mob Multimed Netw. 2011;2011:1–6. doi:10.1109/WoWMoM.2011.5986191.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Brooke MJ, Thompson BM. Food and drug administration regulation of diabetes-related mHealth technologies. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2013;7:296–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Burke LE, Styn MA, Sereika SM, Conroy MB, Ye L, Glanz K. Using mHealth technology to enhance self-monitoring for weight loss: a randomized trial. Am J Prev Med. 2012;43:20–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Cafazzo JA, Palmert MR, Casselman M, Katzman DK, Hamming N. Design of an mHealth App for the self-management of adolescent type 1 diabetes: a pilot study. J Med Internet Res. 2012. doi:10.2196/jmir.2058.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Clifford GD, Clifton D. Wireless technology in disease management and medicine. Annu Rev Med. 2012;63:479–92. doi:10.1146/annurev-med-051210-114650.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. De Lepper AM, Eijkemans MJC, Van Beijma H, Loggers JW, Tuijn CJ, Oskam L. Response patterns to interactive SMS health education quizzes at two sites in Uganda: a cohort study. Tropical Medicine International Health TM IH, 00, 1–6. 2013. doi:10.1111/tmi.12059.

  11. Doswell WM, Braxter B, Dabbs AD, Nilsen W, Klem ML. mHealth: technology for nursing practice, education, and research. J Nurs Educ Pract. 2013;3:99–109. doi:10.5430/jnep.v3n10p99.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Doswell WM, Braxter B, DeVito Dabbs A, Nilsen W, Klem ML. mHealth: technology for nursing practice, education, and research. J Nurs Educ Pract. 2013;3(10):99. doi:10.5430/jnep.v3n10p99.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Felkey BG, Fox BI. Mobilizing care through portable information devices for patients and providers. Hosp Pharm. 2010;45:801–2. doi:10.1310/hpj4510-801.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Fiordelli M, Diviani N, Schulz PJ. Mapping mHealth research: a decade of evolution. J Med Internet Res. 2013;15:e95. doi:10.2196/jmir.2430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Fjeldsoe BS, Marshall AL, Miller YD. Behavior change interventions delivered by mobile telephone short-message service. Am J Prev Med. 2009;36:165–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Foreman KF, Stockl KM, Le LB, Fisk E, Shah SM, Lew HC. Impact of a text messaging pilot program on patient medication adherence. Clin Ther. 2012;34:1084–91. doi:10.1016/j.clinthera.2012.04.007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Free C, Phillips G, Felix L, Galli L, Patel V, Edwards P. The effectiveness of M-health technologies for improving health and health services: a systematic review protocol. BMC Res Notes. 2010;3:250. doi:10.1186/1756-0500-3-250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Gough DA, Kumosa LS, Routh TL, Lin JT, Lucisano JY. Function of an implanted tissue glucose sensor for more than 1 year in animals. Sci Transl Med. 2010;2(42):42ra53. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3001148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Gurman TA, Rubin SE, Roess AA. Effectiveness of mHealth behavior change communication interventions in developing countries: a systematic review of the literature. J Health Commun. 2012;17:82–104. doi:10.1080/10810730.2011.649160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Hahn C. Doing qualitative research using your computer: a practical guide (Google eBook) (p. 232). 2008. SAGE. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=ier-g1UBEe4C&pgis=1.

  21. Hedden H. The Accidental Taxonomist. Information Today, Inc.; 2010. p. 472. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/The-Accidental-Taxonomist-Heather-Hedden/dp/1573873977.

  22. Househ M. Mobile Social Networking Health (MSNet-Health): beyond the mHealth frontier. Stud Health Technol Inf. 2012;180:808–12.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Istepanian RSH, Laxminarayan S, Pattichis CS. M-Health: emerging mobile health systems. MHealth. 2010;p 623. doi:10.1007/b137697.

  24. Joshi V, Holtzman M, Arcelus A, Goubran R, Knoefel F. Highly survivable bed pressure mat remote patient monitoring system for mHealth. Conference Proceedings: … Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference. 2012; 268–71. doi:10.1109/EMBC.2012.6345921.

  25. Larson EC, Goel M, Boriello G, Heltshe S, Rosenfeld M, Patel SN. SpiroSmart. In: Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing—UbiComp’12 (p. 280). New York, New York, USA: ACM Press; 2012. doi:10.1145/2370216.2370261.

  26. Lepp A, Barkley JE, Sanders GJ, Rebold M, Gates P. The relationship between cell phone use, physical and sedentary activity, and cardiorespiratory fitness in a sample of U.S. college students. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2013;10:79. doi:10.1186/1479-5868-10-79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Linkov F, Padilla N, Shubnikov E, Laporte R. Global Networking of Cancer and NCD professionals using internet technologies: the Supercourse and mHealth applications. J Prev Med Public Health Yebang Uihakhoe Chi. 2010;43:472–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Luxton DD, Kayl RA, Mishkind MC. mHealth data security: the need for HIPAAcompliant standardization. Telemedicine and E-Health. 2012;18(4):284–288.

  29. Mare S, Sorber J, Shin M, Cornelius C, Kotz D. Adaptive security and privacy for mHealth sensing. Security. 2011;12. doi:10.1145/2046556.2046574.

  30. Marinkovic S, Popovici E. Ultra low power signal oriented approach for wireless health monitoring. Sensors (Peterboroug). 2012;12:7917–37. doi:10.3390/s120607917.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Martínez A, Everss E, Rojo-Alvarez JL, Figal DP, García-Alberola A. A systematic review of the literature on home monitoring for patients with heart failure. J Telemed Telecare. 2006;12(5):234–41. doi:10.1258/135763306777889109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Martinez F. Developing a full-cycle mHealth strategy. Front Health Serv Manag. 2012;29:11–20.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Maykut PS, Morehouse R. Beginning qualitative research: a philosophic and practical guide (p. 194). Psychology Press; 1994. Retrieved from http://books.google.ca/books/about/Beginning_Qualitative_Research.html?id=pq-0w28WR_YC&pgis=1.

  34. McGillicuddy WJ, Weiland KA, Frenzel MR, Mueller M, Brunner-Jackson MB, Taber JD. Patient attitudes toward mobile phone-based health monitoring: questionnaire study among kidney transplant recipients. J Med Internet Res. 2013;15:e6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Minutolo A, Sannino G, Esposito M, De Pietro G. A rule-based mHealth system for cardiac monitoring. Biomed Eng Sci IECBES 2010 I.E. EMBS Conf. 2010;144–149. doi:10.1109/IECBES.2010.5742217.

  36. Morak J, Schwarz M, Hayn D. Feasibility of mHealth and Near Field Communication technology based medication adherence monitoring. In: Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society EMBC 2012 Annual International Conference of the IEEE. 2012.

  37. Nickerson RC, Varshney U, Muntermann J, Isaac H. Taxonomy development in information systems: developing a taxonomy of mobile applications. In: 17th European Conference on Information Systems. 2009. p. 1–13.

  38. Nilsen W, Kumar S, Shar A, Varoquiers C, Wiley T, Riley WT. Advancing the science of mHealth. J Health Commun. 2012;17 Suppl 1:5–10. doi:10.1080/10810730.2012.677394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Olla P, Prykari T, Kauniskangas H. A mobile point of care reader for immediate diagnostics and analysis. In: Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Wireless Health—WH’13. New York: ACM Press; 2013. p. 1–2. doi:10.1145/2534088.2534096.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  40. Pamplona VF, Mohan A, Oliveira MM, Raskar R. NETRA. ACM Transactions on Graphics. 2010;29(4):1. doi:10.1145/1778765.1778814.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Pamplona VF, Passos EB, Zizka J, Oliveira MM, Lawson E, Clua E, et al. CATRA. ACM Trans Graph. 2011;30(4):1. doi:10.1145/2010324.1964942.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Paradiso R, Loriga G, Taccini N. A wearable health care system based on knitted integrated sensors. IEEE Trans Inf Technol Biomed. 2005;9(3):337–44. doi:10.1109/TITB.2005.854512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Pawar P, Jones V, van Beijnum B-JF, Hermens H. A framework for the comparison of mobile patient monitoring systems. J Biomed Inform. 2012;45(3):544–56. doi:10.1016/j.jbi.2012.02.007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Postolache O, Girao PS, Ribeiro M, Guerra M, Pincho J, Santiago F, et al. Enabling telecare assessment with pervasive sensing and Android OS smartphone. IEEE Int Symp Med Meas Appl. 2011;2011:288–93. doi:10.1109/MeMeA.2011.5966761.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Prasad A, Sorber J, Stablein T, Anthony D, Kotz D. Exposing privacy concerns in mHealth. Society. 2011;2.

  46. Rehalia A, Kumar R. A review on m-health system and technologies. Int J Curr Res Rev. 2012;4:53.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Saldana J. The coding manual for qualitative researchers (Google eBook). 2012. p. 328. SAGE. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=V3tTG4jvgFkC&pgis=1.

  48. Sawyer B, Smith P. Serious Games Taxonomy. Health San Francisco. 2008;1–54.

  49. Sheehan B, Lee Y-J, Rodriguez M, Tiase V, Schnall R. A comparison of usability factors of four mobile devices for accessing healthcare information by adolescents. Appl Clin Inform. 2012;3:356–66. doi:10.4338/ACI-2012-06-RA-0021.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Stanford. New Smartphone scans from Stanford could prevent needless oral cancer deaths—Office of Communications & Public Affairs—Stanford University School of Medicine. n.d. Retrieved from http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/april/vodaphone-0417.html.

  51. Tapley A, Switz N, Reber C, Davis JL, Miller C, Matovu JB. Mobile digital fluorescence microscopy for diagnosis of tuberculosis. J Clin Microbiol. 2013;51(6):1774–8. doi:10.1128/JCM. 03432-12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Trimark. Point of Care Diagnostic Testing World Markets. 2013. Retrieved from http://www.trimarkpublications.com/products/Point-of-Care-Diagnostic-Testing-World-Markets.html.

  53. Turisco F, Garzone M. Harnessing th value of mHealth for your organization. Explore N Y NY. 2011;7:256–61. doi:10.1016/j.explore.2011.04.011.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Turner-McGrievy GM, Beets MW, Moore JB, Kaczynski AT, Barr-Anderson DJ, Tate DF. Comparison of traditional versus mobile app self-monitoring of physical activity and dietary intake among overweight adults participating in an mHealth weight loss program. J Am Med Inform Assoc JAMIA. 2013.

  55. USAID. mHEALTH COMPENDIUM VOLUME TWO | TECHNICAL REPORT. MHealth Compendium Technical Report Volume 2. 2012. doi:10.1145/602421.602423

  56. Van Heerden A, Tomlinson M, Swartz L. Point of care in your pocket: a research agenda for the field of m-health. Bull World Health Organ. 2012;90(5):393–4. doi:10.2471/BLT.11.099788.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Vatsalan D, Arunatileka S, Chapman K, Senaviratne G, Sudahar S, Wijetileka D. Mobile Technologies for Enhancing eHealth Solutions in Developing Countries. eHealth Telemedicine and Social Medicine 2010 ETELEMED 10 Second International Conference on, 84–89. 2010. doi:10.1109/eTELEMED.2010.18.

  58. Wei J, Hollin I, Kachnowski S. A review of the use of mobile phone text messaging in clinical and healthy behaviour interventions. J Telemed Telecare. 2011;17:41–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  59. Wells JK, Forde GK, Forde CA. A new frontier in health technology: the role of SMS text-based messaging as a smoking cessation intervention. Univ Tor Med J. 2011;88:135–40.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Whittaker R, Merry S, Dorey E, Maddison R. A development and evaluation process for mHealth interventions: examples from New Zealand. J Health Commun. 2012;17:11–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. WHO. WHO | Publications. mHealth New Horizons for Health through Mobile Technologies, 3. 2011. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/goe/publications/en/.

  62. World Health Organization. mHealth: New horizons for health through mobile technologies. Observatory. 2011;3:112. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/goe/publications/goe_mhealth_web.pdf.

  63. Yuan Y, Liu J. Mobile phone based wireless microscopy imaging technology. Zhongguo Yi Liao Qi Xie Za Zhi Chin J Med Instrum. 2011;35:79–82.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Phillip Olla.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Olla, P., Shimskey, C. mHealth taxonomy: a literature survey of mobile health applications. Health Technol. 4, 299–308 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-014-0093-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-014-0093-8

Keywords

Navigation