Technology has taken over tasks that were originally carried out by professionals in all different kinds of industries and sectors ranging from self-check in at airports to money transfer via mobile devices. In the healthcare sector the internet has become one main information resource for health-related issues and with the introduction of mobile devices such as smartphones the mHealth market has evolved. With help of mHealth applications (mHealth apps) patients can actively participate in maintaining their health and take over tasks usually fulfilled by health professionals. Despite the advantages of mHealth apps in practice, the download numbers are decreasing and the academic world has not paid much attention to the end-users point of view. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors influencing end-users in their intention to use mHealth apps. In order to answer this research question a quantitative research design has been chosen. The data is collected with help of an online self-completion questionnaire and statistical analysis with the software SPSS. Time and Perceived Usefulness were two out of five factors that had an influence on the end-users intention to use mHealth apps. A key finding of this study is that the mHealth app market is still in its early stage and end-users lack knowledge about it. This paper contributes to theory as well as to practice by providing new research directions for the academic world and insights for app developers and marketers to adapt their marketing strategies in order to meet the customers’ needs.

In the epoch of advanced mHealth (mobile health) use in ophthalmology, there is a scientific call for regulating the validity and reliability of eye-related apps. For a positive health outcome that works towards enhancing mobile-application guided diagnosis in joint decision-making between eye specialists and individuals, the aging population should be provided with a reliable and valid tool for assessment of their eye status outside the physician office. This interdisciplinary study aims to determine through hypothesis testing validity and reliability of a limited set of five mHealth apps (mHAs ) and through binary logistic regression the prediction possibilities of investigated apps to exclude the four major eye diseases in the particular demographic population. The study showed that 189 aging adults (45- 86 years old) who did complete the mHAs’ tests were able to produce reliable results of selected eye function tests through four out of five mHAs measuring visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, red desaturation, visual field and Amsler grid in comparison with a “gold standard” - comprehensive eye examination. Also, part of the participants was surveyed for assessing the Quality of Experience on mobile apps. Understanding of current reliability of existing eye-related mHAs will lead to the creation of ideal mobile application’ self-assessment protocol predicting the timely need for clinical assessment and treatment of age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataract. Detecting the level of eye function impairments by mHAs is cost-effective and can contribute to research methodology in eye diseases’ prediction by expanding the system of clear criteria specially created for mobile applications and provide returning significant value in preventive ophthalmology.

<p dir="ltr">FemTech is a booming subset of mHealth applications that was worth $51 billion in 2021 (Stewart, 2022b). FemTech largely focuses on menstruation, pregnancy, and fertility tracking. As with any technology, it comes with privacy and security risks for users, but these risks are more acute due to the sensitive nature of the data being collected. While privacy and security shortcomings have been highlighted for years, concerns were discussed widely in the United States after the Supreme Court released its <i>Dobbs v. Jackson</i> decision on June 24, 2022, which overturned <i>Roe v. Wade</i>, a 1973 decision that protected abortion as a constitutional right and limited states’ abilities to place restrictions on abortions. With abortion no longer a constitutional right, many states have outlawed or heavily restricted the procedure, and individuals expressed concern about their digital data being used in investigations as it has been in select previous cases (e.g., <i>State of Indiana v. Purvi Patel</i>, 2015; <i>State of Mississippi v. Latice Fisher</i>, 2018; <i>The State of Nebraska v. Celeste Burgess</i>, 2023; <i>The State of Nebraska v. Jessica Burgess</i>, 2023). While Big Tech has been scrutinized for turning user data over to law enforcement, many have more heavily questioned the protections offered by period tracking app companies due to the abundant amount of health data these companies possess about their users (e.g., Basu, 2022; Bradley et al., 2022; Cole, 2022). These apps have historically fallen short in protections for their user data in general (e.g., Beilinson, 2020; <i>Developer of Popular Women’s Fertility-Tracking App Settles FTC Allegations That It Misled Consumers About the Disclosure of Their Health Data</i>, 2021; Quintin, 2017). Clue is one of the most popular FemTech apps with millions of downloads across the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and the company has spoken out widely about their privacy protections in the wake of the <i>Dobbs v. Jackson</i> decision (<i>‎Clue Period Tracker & Calendar</i>, n.d.; <i>Clue Period Tracker & Calendar</i>, n.d.; <i>Clue’s Response to Roe vs Wade Decision</i>, 2022). This research presents a forensic analysis of Clue on both iOS and Android after two months of data population, finding that some user-entered data was available in the app cache or .db-wal files on both iOS and Android but was entirely erased after the deletion of the app on the phones. This research also presents results from a survey of 31 menstruators in the United States, finding that online privacy in general is a concern for many users, and most find it unacceptable for period tracking applications to share user health data with advertisers or law enforcement.</p>

With the rise of portable devices, the interest in health and medical applications(mhealth applications) has risen, and the importance of evaluating these applications is critical. The application stores on portable devices only require a good application quality and not the content. The content of the medical health applications could be harmful and need to be evaluated to decrease the potential health risks. In this report, a new mobile health application named POSITIVE gets evaluated with the help of interviewed questionnaires and user­personas. The POSITIVE application target is the older population with their aim to maintain and improve the intrinsic capacity involving primary care and caregivers. POSITIVE application content is monitored by customized exercise programs with medical tests with associated help devices.  The evaluation was done by creating user personas that give a user overview. User personas were designed with the help of data obtained through a interview protocol. The interview protocol was design for this specific evaluation with the help of research questionnaire tools. Questionnaire tools used for creating the interview protocol were the system usability scale(SUS), service user technology acceptability questionnaire(SUTAQ), patient activation measure(PAM), elderly information technology ability tool(EITAT), and mobile health app usability questionnaire(MAUQ) The results show that participants with a higher level of health problems had a lower exercise activity in the application. Participants with lower health problems have a higher exercise activity. Both participants’ groups liked the application’s design and felt it motivated them. Critiques towards the application were to have better customized exercises. / Med smarta mobila enheter växande tillgång har interesset för hälso och medicinska applikationer ökat där vikten att utvärdera dessa applikationer är mycket viktigt. Applikationsbutiker på mobila enheter har endast krav på bra kvalitet på funktioner men inte innehållet av applikationerna. Innehåll av medicinska eller hälsoapplikationer kan vara skadliga och behöver därför genomgå en utvärdering för att minska potentiella hälsorisker.  I denna rapport kommer en ny hälsoapplikation kallad POSITIVE att presenteras samt evalueras med hjälp av intervju protokoll och user personas. POSITIVEs målgrupp är den äldre populationen där deras mål är att förebygga skörhet bland äldre genom att involvera närstående, patienten samt primärvården. Applikationen innehåller ett anpassat och övervakat träningsprogram med medicinska tester som görs medtillhörande utrustning.  Evaluering utförs genom att skapa en ”user persona” som ger en överblick över användarna. User personan utformas med hjälp av data som erhålls genom intervju protokoll. Intervjuprotokollet är utformat med hjälp av forskade frågeformulärsverktyg. Frågeformulärsverktyg som använts till utformningen är system usability scale(SUS), service user technology acceptability questionnaire(SUTAQ), patient activation measure(PAM),eldery information technology ability tool(EITAT) och mobile health app usabilityquestionnaire(MAUQ). Resultatet visar att deltagare med fler hälsoproblem har mindre aktivitet i applikationen. Deltagare med mindre hälsoproblem har högre aktivitet i applikationen. Båda grupperna gillade designen på applikationen som ökade deras motivation. Kritik mot applikationen är att det borde funnits bättre anpassad träningsprogram.