SynthesisBMJ open2017
Evidence assessing the diagnostic performance of medical smartphone apps: a systematic review and exploratory meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Algorithm based smartphone apps to assess risk of skin cancer in adults: systematic review of diagnostic accuracy studies.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2020Pooled it
- The effect of active occupational stress management on psychosocial and physiological wellbeing: a pilot study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2020Trial
- Smartphone Applications in Dermatology With Special Focus on AI: A European-Continent-Based Review.International journal of dermatology · 2026Review
- Quality of Digital Health Interventions Across Different Health Care Domains: Secondary Data Analysis Study.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2023Article
- Mental Health Professionals' Attitudes Toward Digital Mental Health Apps and Implications for Adoption in Portugal: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR human factors · 2023Article
- Attitudes of Physicians and Individuals Toward Digital Mental Health Tools: Protocol for a Web-Based Survey Research Project.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- Reliability of a human pose tracking algorithm for measuring upper limb joints: comparison with photography-based goniometry.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2022Article
- Usefulness of Smartphones in Dermatology: A US-Based Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Reliability of Measuring Leg Segments and Joint Angles Using Smartphones during Aquatic Exercise.Healthcare informatics research · 2022Article
- Validation of a Musculoskeletal Digital Assessment Routing Tool: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Crossover Noninferiority Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2021Article
- Person-Generated Health Data in Women's Health: Protocol for a Scoping Review.JMIR research protocols · 2021Article
- Usability Testing of a Digital Assessment Routing Tool: Protocol for an Iterative Convergent Mixed Methods Study.JMIR research protocols · 2021Article
- Evaluation of the Diagnostic Accuracy of an Online Artificial Intelligence Application for Skin Disease Diagnosis.Acta dermato-venereologica · 2020Article
- Longitudinal trends in the quality, effectiveness and attributes of highly rated smartphone health apps.Evidence-based mental health · 2020Article
- The Development of a Skin Cancer Classification System for Pigmented Skin Lesions Using Deep Learning.Biomolecules · 2020Article
- Daily Self-Monitoring of Symptoms and Skills Learning in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder Through a Mobile Phone App: Protocol for a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2020Article
- Poor agreement between the automated risk assessment of a smartphone application for skin cancer detection and the rating by dermatologists.Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV · 2020Article
- What is the clinical value of mHealth for patients?NPJ digital medicine · 2020Review
- Observational
- Intelligent Sensing to Inform and Learn (InSTIL): A Scalable and Governance-Aware Platform for Universal, Smartphone-Based Digital Phenotyping for Research and Clinical Applications.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe number of mobile applications addressing health topics is increasing. Whether these apps underwent scientific evaluation is unclear. We comprehensively assessed papers investigating the diagnostic value of available diagnostic health applications using inbuilt smartphone sensors.
methodsSystematic Review-MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science inclusive Medical Informatics and Business Source Premier (by citation of reference) were searched from inception until 15 December 2016. Checking of reference lists of review articles and of included articles complemented electronic searches. We included all studies investigating a health application that used inbuilt sensors of a smartphone for diagnosis of disease. The methodological quality of 11 studies used in an exploratory meta-analysis was assessed with the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 tool and the reporting quality with the 'STAndards for the Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy studies' (STARD) statement. Sensitivity and specificity of studies reporting two-by-two tables were calculated and summarised.
resultsWe screened 3296 references for eligibility. Eleven studies, most of them assessing melanoma screening apps, reported 17 two-by-two tables. Quality assessment revealed high risk of bias in all studies. Included papers studied 1048 subjects (758 with the target conditions and 290 healthy volunteers). Overall, the summary estimate for sensitivity was 0.82 (95 % CI 0.56 to 0.94) and 0.89 (95 %CI 0.70 to 0.97) for specificity.
conclusionsThe diagnostic evidence of available health apps on Apple's and Google's app stores is scarce. Consumers and healthcare professionals should be aware of this when using or recommending them. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: 42016033049.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.