Smartphone As a Personal, Pervasive Health Informatics Services Platform: Literature Review

Smartphone as a Personal, Pervasive Health Informatics Services Platform: Literature Review

K. Wac University of Geneva, Institute of Services Science, Quality of Life Group, Geneva, Switzerland

1 Introduction 2010 and 12 billion in 2011 [5]. Be- Summary sides the dedicated smartphone apps, Objectives: The article provides an overview of current trends in per- A ubiquitous availability of personal users can access web-based content on sonal sensor, signal and imaging informatics, that are based on mobile devices and high-capacity wire- their smartphone, i.e., websites with emerging mobile computing and communications technologies less networks enable innovative appli- information, gaming applications or enclosed in a smartphone and enabling the provision of personal, cations in different aspects of our daily positioning and navigation services. pervasive health informatics services. life, e.g., communication, education or Furthermore, as we have investigated Methods: The article reviews examples of these trends from the entertainment. Over the past decade, in one of our large population studies, PubMed and Google scholar literature search engines, which, by no particularly smartphones become more people carry their smartphones around means claim to be complete, as the field is evolving and some recent prevalent, e.g., 50% of U.S. mobile almost all the time with them [6]. advances may not be documented yet. phone users had a smartphone at the In parallel, an increasing availabil- Results: There exist critical technological advances in the surveyed

end of 2011 [1] and 300 million ity of smartphone built-in (e.g., mag- smartphone technologies, employed in provision and improvement smartphones were being sold world- netometer, accelerometer, air pressure), of diagnosis, acute and chronic treatment and rehabilitation health wide in 2010 [2] and 500 million are as well as external sensors, capturing services, as well as in education and training of healthcare practi- predicted for 2012 [3]. At the end of different phenomena (e.g., electric, tioners. However, the most emerging trend relates to a routine appli- the 2011, there were more smartphones magnetic, electrochemical, mechani- cation of these technologies in a prevention/wellness sector, helping sold in the US, than PCs [3]. A cal, thermal and optical), enable a de- its users in self-care to stay healthy. smartphone is different from (low-end) velopment of new sensor systems for Conclusions: Smartphone-based personal health informatics services feature phone, as the former has larger measurements of a state of a phone user exist, but still have a long way to go to become an everyday, person- computing power and storage capabili- and his/her surrounding environment. alized healthcare-provisioning tool in the medical field and in a ties, as well as a set of advanced fea- Particularly there exist sensor systems clinical practice. Key main challenge for their widespread adoption tures (camera, touch-screen) and ad- worn on the body or around the body involve lack of user acceptance striving from variable credibility vanced application programming forming a Body Area Network (BAN), and reliability of applications and solutions as they a) lack evi- interfaces (APIs) for running third- for which a smart-phone is a central dence-based approach; b) have low levels of medical professional party data-based applications (apps), processing unit. These BANs can involvement in their design and content; c) are provided in an while the latter is mainly designed for measure user’s psychophysiology and unreliable way, influencing negatively its usability; and, in some voice and text-based interactions and environmental conditions, integrating cases, d) being industry-driven, hence exposing bias in informa- come with a pre-installed set of fixed for example heart rate, respiration rate, tion provided, for example towards particular types of treatment or applications and limited fe