Developing a Comprehensive List of Criteria to Evaluate the Characteristics and Quality of eHealth Smartphone Apps: Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: The field of eHealth is growing rapidly and chaotically. Health care professionals need guidance on reviewing and assessing health-related smartphone apps to propose appropriate ones to their patients. However, to date, no framework or evaluation tool fulfills this purpose. OBJECTIVE: Before developing a tool to help health care professionals assess and recommend apps to their patients, we aimed to create an overview of published criteria to describe and evaluate health apps. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review to identify existing criteria for eHealth smartphone app evaluation. Relevant databases and trial registers were queried for articles. Articles were included that (1) described tools, guidelines, dimensions, or criteria to evaluate apps, (2) were available in full text, and (3) were written in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish. We proposed a conceptual framework for app evaluation based on the dimensions reported in the selected articles. This was revised iteratively in discussion rounds with international stakeholders. The conceptual framework was used to synthesize the reported evaluation criteria. The list of criteria was discussed and refined by the research team. RESULTS: Screening of 1258 articles yielded 128 (10.17%) that met the inclusion criteria. Of these 128 articles, 30 (23.4%) reported the use of self-developed criteria and described their development processes incompletely. Although 43 evaluation instruments were used only once, 6 were used in multiple studies. Most articles (83/128, 64.8%) did not report following theoretical guidelines; those that did noted 37 theoretical frameworks. On the basis of the selected articles, we proposed a conceptual framework to explore 6 app evaluation dimensions: context, stakeholder involvement, features and requirements, development processes, implementation, and evaluation. After standardizing the definitions, we identified 205 distinct criteria. Through consensus, the research team relabeled 12 of these and added 11 more-mainly related to ethical, legal, and social aspects-resulting in 216 evaluation criteria. No criteria had to be moved between dimensions. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a comprehensive overview of criteria currently used in clinical practice to describe and evaluate apps. This is necessary as no reviewed criteria sets were inclusive, and none included consistent definitions and terminology. Although the resulting overview is impractical for use in clinical practice in its current form, it confirms the need to craft it into a purpose-built, theory-driven tool. Therefore, in a subsequent step, based on our current criteria set, we plan to construct an app evaluation tool with 2 parts: a short section (including 1-3 questions/dimension) to quickly disqualify clearly unsuitable apps and a longer one to investigate more likely candidates in closer detail. We will use a Delphi consensus-building process and develop a user manual to prepare for this undertaking. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews CRD42021227064; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021227064.

Review of Care Transition Records and Their Transmission Process in Nursing Facilities and Hospitals in Germany - Results of an Online Questionnaire.

A quantitative approach in the form of an online questionnaire was used to identify challenges and desires related to the Care Records Transmission Process and Care Transition Records (CTR). The questionnaire was sent to nurses, nursing assistants, and trainees working in ambulatory, acute inpatient, or long-term care settings. The survey revealed that creating CTRs is time-consuming, and the lack of standardization of CTRs makes the process even more cumbersome. In addition, most facilities transmit the CTR by physically handing it over to the patient or resident, resulting in little or no preparation time for the individual(s) receiving care. The key findings also suggest that most respondents are only partially satisfied with the completeness of the CTRs and that they must conduct additional interviews to obtain missing information. However, most respondents hoped that digital transmission of CTRs would lead to less administrative burden and that standardization of CTRs would be encouraged.

Data and Information Problems in Health Care and How Creative Methods Might Solve Them.

This paper discusses the concept of data and information and highlights the problems associated with their usage in healthcare. While data refers to facts and statistics collected for reference or analysis, information includes the context provided to data to gain meaning. Healthcare professionals use the information obtained from data to improve patients' health status and satisfaction. Nevertheless, the value of information depends on the data and how it is presented. As a result, many problems can arise in the collection and processing of data and the provision of information. In this paper, these are called data and information problems. One possible approach to reduce such problems in the future could be to use creative methods. To initially address this idea, exemplary keyword research was carried out, and examples are presented in this paper.

CARE REGIO - Digital Transformation and Technology in Nursing Care.

Digital technologies have the potential to improve the quality of nursing care. CARE REGIO is a Bavarian joint research project for digital transformation and technology in nursing care. The project goals are supporting the nursing staff, saving time, improving the quality of care as well as increasing the quality of life and safety of those in need of care. In Phase 1 of the project, literature and stakeholder analyses, and qualitative surveys were carried out. Subsequently, central fields of action were defined for Phase 2 of the project. CARE REGIO can make a significant contribution to evaluating existing digital solutions, developing new solutions, and accelerating their implementation into practice.

Digitalizing Nursing in the Bavarian Swabia Region of Germany - Presentation of the Joint Project CARE REGIO.

The joint research project CARE REGIO aims to modernize the care system with digital solutions. We focus on the development of a uniform electronic care record, uniform data exchange between care facilities, and technical assistive systems, which shall all be unified in a standardized care-based storage solution.