Keutzer Lina, Wicha Sebastian G, Simonsson Ulrika Sh
Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Institute of Pharmacy, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2020 Apr 21;8(4):e17246. doi: 10.2196/17246.
Mobile health (mHealth) is a rapidly emerging market, which has been implemented in a variety of different disease areas. Tuberculosis remains one of the most common causes of death from an infectious disease worldwide, and mHealth apps offer an important contribution to the improvement of tuberculosis treatment. In particular, apps facilitating dose individualization, adherence monitoring, or provision of information and education about the disease can be powerful tools to prevent the development of drug-resistant tuberculosis or disease relapse.
The aim of this review was to identify, describe, and categorize mobile and Web-based apps related to tuberculosis that are currently available.
PubMed, Google Play Store, Apple Store, Amazon, and Google were searched between February and July 2019 using a combination of 20 keywords. Apps were included in the analysis if they focused on tuberculosis, and were excluded if they were related to other disease areas or if they were games unrelated to tuberculosis. All apps matching the inclusion criteria were classified into the following five categories: adherence monitoring, individualized dosing, eLearning/information, diagnosis, and others. The included apps were then summarized and described based on publicly available information using 12 characteristics.
Fifty-five mHealth apps met the inclusion criteria and were included in this analysis. Of the 55 apps, 8 (15%) were intended to monitor patients' adherence, 6 (11%) were designed for dosage adjustment, 29 (53%) were designed for eLearning/information, 3 (6%) were focused on tuberculosis diagnosis, and 9 (16%) were related to other purposes.
The number of mHealth apps related to tuberculosis has increased during the past 3 years. Although some of the discovered apps seem promising, many were found to contain errors or provided harmful or wrong information. Moreover, the majority of mHealth apps currently on the market are focused on making information about tuberculosis available (29/55, 53%). Thus, this review highlights a need for new, high-quality mHealth apps supporting tuberculosis treatment, especially those supporting individualized optimized treatment through model-informed precision dosing and video observed treatment.
移动健康（mHealth）是一个迅速崛起的市场，已在各种不同疾病领域得到应用。结核病仍是全球传染病致死的最常见原因之一，移动健康应用程序为改善结核病治疗做出了重要贡献。特别是，有助于剂量个体化、依从性监测或提供有关该疾病的信息及教育的应用程序，可能成为预防耐药结核病发展或疾病复发的有力工具。
本综述的目的是识别、描述和分类当前可用的与结核病相关的移动应用程序和基于网络的应用程序。
2019年2月至7月期间，使用20个关键词组合在PubMed、谷歌应用商店、苹果应用商店、亚马逊和谷歌上进行搜索。如果应用程序专注于结核病，则纳入分析；如果与其他疾病领域相关或为与结核病无关的游戏，则排除。所有符合纳入标准的应用程序分为以下五类：依从性监测、个体化给药、电子学习/信息、诊断及其他。然后根据公开信息，利用12个特征对纳入的应用程序进行总结和描述。
55个移动健康应用程序符合纳入标准并纳入本分析。在这55个应用程序中，8个（15%）旨在监测患者的依从性，6个（11%）用于剂量调整，29个（53%）用于电子学习/信息，3个（6%）专注于结核病诊断，9个（16%）与其他目的相关。
在过去3年中，与结核病相关的移动健康应用程序数量有所增加。尽管一些发现的应用程序似乎很有前景，但许多被发现存在错误或提供有害或错误信息。此外，目前市场上的大多数移动健康应用程序专注于提供有关结核病的信息（29/55，53%）。因此，本综述强调需要新的、高质量的移动健康应用程序来支持结核病治疗，特别是那些通过模型指导的精准给药和视频观察治疗来支持个体化优化治疗的应用程序。
