Designing evaluation plans for mHealth interventions

: a case study on the weal life app

Abstract

As an applied research project, the purpose of this dissertation is to develop a suitable framework for health-tech companies to evaluate and monitor their mobile-based health technologies’ efficacy and usability, whilst defining features and maximizing performance. Indeed, since no officially recognized standards exist for mobile health (mHealth) apps evaluation, despite the fact they can produce health or behavioral benefits, this crucial assessment is often overlooked by companies and poorly integrated into planning.
This research illustrates four mHealth evaluation frameworks and describes the
assessment plan that has been developed for The Weal Life app, a socially connected app targeted to caregivers and circle of support.
Ultimately, and this is our main finding, we identified two necessary conditions for health-tech companies to maximize their mHealth apps evaluation and performance.
The first is to embrace a strategic approach that aligns both the mobile health
intervention and app development goals, and the second is to assess the impact of these technologies. Indeed, we show that impact measurement process plays the role of “information systems” allowing companies not only to quantify the impact of their products, but also to monitor and improve their performance constantly.
The detail of The Weal Life assessment plan will ensure the findings add to evidence and have broad relevance to healthcare professionals and researchers in general.

Date of Award	8 May 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Susana Frazão Pinheiro (Supervisor)