Connected Health in Multiple Sclerosis: a mobile applications review

摘要

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease that canadversely affect any body function; this often requires persons with MS to beactive patients who are able to self-manage. There are currently thousands ofhealth applications available but it is unknown how many concern MS. Weconducted a systematic review of all MS apps present in the most popular appstores (iTunes and Google Play store) on June 2016 to identify all relevant MSapps. After discarding non-MS related apps and duplicates, only a total of 25MS apps were identified. App description contents and features were explored toassess target audience, functionalities, and developing entities. The vastmajority of apps were focused on disease and treatment information with diseasemanagement being a close second. This is the first study that reviews MS appsand it highlights an interesting gap in the current repertoire of MS mHealthresources.