Abstract
Background: Chronic diseases have been identified as global challenges to public health. Although the self-management of these diseases is critical, it is not always facilitated by conventional health systems. The adoption of mobile health (mHealth) solutions holds great promise for perpetual monitoring and patient engagement in controlling such diseases. According to evidence, most developed applications have not been highly successful in yielding desirable results. Therefore, this study proposed a novel framework for developing personalized mHealth systems that facilitate self-management among individuals with chronic conditions.
Materials and Methods: A multi-step method incorporating qualitative research techniques was employed. First, a narrative literature review was conducted to assess existing work and identify framework-related issues. Semi-structured interviews were also performed with experts in clinical, technical, and behavioral domains to refine the framework requirements for use in the design process. Validations with patients and medical practitioners were conducted to evaluate the clarity and appropriateness of the framework. Ultimately, the data were synthesized using thematic analysis techniques.
Results: The four major themes were personalization and adaptive support, engagement behavior, clinical and technical interfacing, and ethics and trustworthiness. In addition, the themes encompassed the personalization of interventions, interaction features, interfacing capabilities with other systems in clinical settings, and privacy requirements. It was revealed that the users were concerned about ease of use and data management.
Conclusion: Overall, the framework offers an evidence-based and patient-centric paradigm for developing clinically relevant, ethical, and scalable mHealth solutions to help mitigate the burden of chronic diseases worldwide.