Mobile healthcare interventions for Top-25 public health diseases: A systematic review

Context: Mobile phones are now ubiquitous. More than 4 billion people have mobile devices, and mobile networks cover more than 95% of human population. However, health systems still struggle to deliver basic healthcare services to large segments of populations. Some of these services could easily be delivered using mobile technologies that include voice, text messages, data transfer, still images, short videos and software applications residing on cell phones.

Methods: We undertook a detailed study of top-25 diseases that cause the most public health burden and evaluated the evidence that supports the currently established interventions. Next, we reviewed the literature to identify any mobile healthcare interventions that have been proposed for the selected diseases. We then developed a framework and conducted structured problem solving to identify new mobile interventions that could help improve outcomes for each of the selected diseases. This brainstorming included matching every potential mobile technology with each disease condition to generate new options. Finally, we interviewed leading disease and technology experts to validate the interventions database.

Results: We have generated a database of 100+ mobile healthcare interventions that could be deployed against leading disease conditions. We estimate that successful implementation of these interventions could have a huge impact on global burden of diseases. However, the clinical efficacy and cost effectiveness of each of these interventions needs to be demonstrated in rigorous studies. We invite public health investigators for setting up collaborative studies to evaluate the proposed novel mobile healthcare interventions.