Open AccessA scope of mobile health solutions in COVID-19 pandemics
Author(s) -
Afsoon Asadzadeh,
Leila R Kalankesh
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
informatics in medicine unlocked
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2352-9148
DOI - 10.1016/j.imu.2021.100558
Subject(s) - outbreak , pandemic , covid-19 , telemedicine , mobile phone , medical emergency , digital health , medicine , public health , telehealth , medline , business , environmental health , health care , disease , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , nursing , telecommunications , political science , virology , pathology , law
Background and aimCOVID-19 has become an international emergency. The use of digital solutions can be effective in managing, preventing, and overcoming the further spread of infectious disease outbreaks. Accordingly, the use of mobile-health (m-health) technologies has the potential to promote public health. This review aimed to study the application of m-health solutions for the management of the COVID-19 outbreak.MethodsThe search strategy was done in Medline (PubMed), Embase, IEEE, and Google Scholar by using related keywords to m-health and COVID-19 on 6 July 2020. English papers that used m-health technologies for the COVID-19 outbreak were included.ResultsOf the 2046 papers identified, 16 were included in this study. M-health had been used for various aims such as early detection, fast screening, patient monitoring, information sharing, education, and treatment in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. M-health solutions were classified into four use case categories: prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and protection. The mobile phone-based app and short text massaging were the most frequently used modalities, followed by wearables, portable screening devices, mobile-telehealth, and continuous telemetry monitor during the pandemics.ConclusionIt appears that m-health technologies played a positive role during the COVID-19 outbreak. Given the extensive capabilities of m-health solutions, investigation and use of all potential applications of m-health should be considered for combating the current Epidemics and mitigating its negative impacts.