Five Lessons Learned From Randomized Controlled Trials on Mobile Health Interventions: Consensus Procedure on Practical Recommendations for Sustainable Research.

BACKGROUND

Clinical research on mobile health (mHealth) interventions is too slow in comparison to the rapid speed of technological advances, thereby impeding sustainable research and evidence-based implementation of mHealth interventions.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to establish practical lessons from the experience of our working group, which might accelerate the development of future mHealth interventions and their evaluation by randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

METHODS

This paper is based on group and expert discussions, and focuses on the researchers' perspectives after four RCTs on mHealth interventions for chronic pain.

RESULTS

The following five lessons are presented, which are based on practical application, increase of speed, and sustainability: (1) explore stakeholder opinions, (2) develop the mHealth app and trial simultaneously, (3) minimize complexity, (4) manage necessary resources, and (5) apply behavior change techniques.

CONCLUSIONS

The five lessons developed may lead toward an agile research environment. Agility might be the key factor in the development and research process of a potentially sustainable and evidence-based mHealth intervention.