Open Access
Research (Published online: 18-07-2017)
7. Depiction of global trends in publications on mobile health
Shahla Foozonkhah and Leila R. Kalankesh
International Journal of One Health, 3: 42-45

Shahla Foozonkhah: Department of Health Information Technology Assessment, Standardization and Tariff Setting, Iranian Ministry of Health and Education,Tehran, Iran.
Leila R. Kalankesh: Tabriz Health Services Management Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; Department of Health Information Technology, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

doi: 10.14202/IJOH.2017.42-45

Share this article on [Facebook] [LinkedIn]

Article history: Received: 04-04-2017, Accepted: 20-06-2017, Published online: 18-07-2017

Corresponding author: Leila R. Kalankesh

E-mail: Lrkalankesh@tbzmed.ac.ir

Citation: Foozonkhah S, Kalankesh LR. Depiction of global trends in publications on mobile health. Int J One Health 2017;3:42-45.
Abstract

Background: Variety of mobile health initiatives in different levels have been undertaken across many countries. Trends of these initiatives can be reflected in the research published in m-health domain.

Aim: This paper aims to depict global trends in the published works on m-health topic.

Materials and Methods: The Web of Science database was used to identify all relevant published papers on mobile health domain worldwide. The search was conducted on documents published from January 1898 to December 2014. The criteria for searching were set to be "mHealth" or "Mobile health" or "m health" or "m_health" or "m-health" in topics.

Results: Findings revealed an increasing trend of citations and publications on m-health research since 2012. English was the first most predominant language of the publication. The US had the highest number of publication with 649 papers; however, the Netherlands ranked first after considering publication number in terms of countries population. "Studies in Health Technology and Informatics" was the source title with highest number of publications on mobile health topics.

Conclusion: Trend of research observed in this study indicates the continuing growth is happening in mobile health domain. This may imply that the new model of health-care delivery is emerging. Further research is needed to specify directions of mobile health research. It is necessary to identify and prioritize the research gaps in this domain.

Keywords: mHealth, mobile health, publication trend, research trend, scientometrics.

References

1. World Health Organization. New Horizons for Health through Mobile Technologies: Based on the Findings of the Second Global Survey on eHealth; 2011.

2. Sebelius K. Mobile Healthcare is the Biggest Technology Breakthrough of our Time to address our Greatest National Challenge in mHealth Summit 2011. Washington DC: Department of Health and Human Services; 2011.

3. Steinhubl SR, Muse ED, Topol EJ. Can mobile health technologies transform health care? JAMA 2013;310:2395-6. [Crossref] [PubMed]

4. Kahn JG, Yang JS, Kahn JS. 'Mobile' health needs and opportunities in developing countries. Health Aff (Millwood) 2010;29:252-8. [Crossref] [PubMed]

5. Qiang C, Kuek SC. Mobile Application for the Health Sector. Washington, DC: ICT Sector Unit, World Bank; 2011.

6. Ventola CL. Mobile devices and apps for health care professionals: Uses and benefits. P T 2014;39:356-64.

7. Anderson K, Burford O, Emmerton L. Mobile health apps to facilitate self-care: A qualitative study of user experiences. PLOS One 2016;11:e0156164. [Crossref] [PubMed] [PMC]

8. West D. How mobile devices are transforming healthcare. Issues Technol Innov 2012;18:1-14.

9. Heilig GK. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division: World Population Prospects. New York: The 2015 Revision; 2015.

10. HIMSS. HIMSS Analytics 2013 Mobile Technology Survey Examines mHealth Landscape; 2014.

11. Daim T, Pizarro M, Talla R. Planning and Roadmapping Technological Innovations: Cases and Tools. Cham: Springer; 2014. [Crossref]

12. Bastawrous A, Armstrong MJ. Mobile health use in low-and high-income countries: An overview of the peer-reviewed literature. J R Soc Med 2013;106:130-42. [Crossref] [PubMed] [PMC]

13. Khodaei N, Kalankesh L, Sanamno Z. Scope of mobile apps in health domain: Highlighting the apps introduced by the recognized organizations. Depiction Health 2012;3:31-37.

14. Roden, A. The Year of Mobile Health. 2016 . Available at http://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/2016-the-year-of-mobile-health. Accessed on 08-03-2017.

15. Boulos M, Al-Shorbaji N. On the internet of things, smart cities and the WHO healthy cities. Int J Health Geogr 2014;13:1-6.

16. Peeples M, Iyer A, Cohen J. Integration of mobile-integrated therapy with electronic health records: Lessons learned. J Diabetes Sci Technol 2013;7:602-11. [Crossref] [PubMed] [PMC]

17. Garcia-Gomez JM, de la Torre-Diez I, Vicente J, Robles M, Lopez-Coronado M, Rodrigues JJ. Analysis of mobile health applications for a broad spectrum of consumers: A user experience approach. Health Informatics J 2014;20:74-84. [Crossref] [PubMed]

18. Norris AC, Stockdale RS, Sharma S. A strategic approach to m-health. Health Informatics J 2009;15:244-53. [Crossref] [PubMed]

19. Patrick K, Griswold WG, Raab F, Intille SS. Health and the mobile phone. Am J Prev Med 2008;35:177-81. [Crossref] [PubMed] [PMC]

20. Kalankesh L, Kalankesh L. Publication on health policy worldwide from 1898 to 2013: Identifying position of Iran. Mater Sociomed 2014;26:419-21. [Crossref] [PubMed] [PMC]

21. Biglu M, Yousefi Rad K, Biglu S,Serati Nouri H. A homeopathic perspective on obstetrics and gynecology research. Int J Womens Health Reprod 2014;2:329-32. [Crossref]

22. Monge-Najera J, Nielsen V. The countries and languages that dominate biological research at the beginning of the 21st century. Rev Biol Trop 2005;53:283-94. [PubMed]

23. Franco-Perez A, Sanz-Valero J, Wanden-Berghe C, Melian-Fleitas L. The iberoamerican scientific production in nutritional sciences: The indexation in pubmed and google scholar. Nutr Hosp 2014;30:1165-72. [PubMed]

24. Ammon U. The Dominance of English as a Language of Science: Effects on Other Languages and Language Communities. New York: Walter de Gruyter; 2001. [Crossref]

25. Consolvo S, Klasnja P, McDonald DW, Landay JA. Designing for healthy lifestyles: Design considerations for mobile technologies to encourage consumer health and wellness. Found Trends Hum Comput Interact 2014;6:167-315. [Crossref]

26. Kurmis AP. Understanding the limitations of the journal impact factor. J Bone Joint Surg Am 2003;85-A:2449-54. [Crossref] [PubMed]