Urs-vito Albrecht*, P.L.R. Institute for Medical Informatics, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, Hannover, Germany Michael Hoopmann, Governmental Institute for Public Health in Lower Saxony, Hannover, Germany Ute Von Jan, P.L.R. Institute for Medical Informatics, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, Hannover, Germany Daniel Strech, Institute for History, Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine, CELLS - Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany Track: Practice Presentation Topic: Mobile & Tablet Health Applications Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2012-09-12

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Evidence based recommendations, founded on well-researched clinical trials, significantly help health care personnel with managing patients. While physicians base their decisions on the available data, patients often use the same information to decide whether to go along with or reject the planned treatment. For both parties, due to the overwhelming number of clinical trials, it is hard to maintain the overview over the information not only regarding the diagnosis and treatment of specific disorders, but also not to overlook critical situations that may be encountered during the treatment process.

Evidence based information can be used as a solid foundation for deciding between various options for diagnostic procedures and treatment plans. If a mobile reference, e.g. on a device such as a smartphone, is readily available for health providers when dealing with a patient with a certain disease, this might have a beneficial effect on the outcome of the treatment, especially if the specific needs of the patient (co-morbidity, co-medication) could be considered during the selection of information. Recently, a number of promising apps addressing these issues have been made available.

Providing users with evidence based data by presenting them with a concise and comprehensive overview of the available clinical studies and their deductions is an attractive concept although it is hard to assess the quality of the presented information since the criteria for selecting the underlying studies are unknown. The development of user group tailored applications to present key data of clinical trials are generally welcome hence their greater acceptance. Ethical problems are not caused by the search for or development of Cochrane alternatives or other projects specifically preparing trial results for specific user groups. Problems arise when such projects do not explicitly name their limitations. Apps should undergo a peer-review process before they may be offered online. This peer-review should be based on a list of minimum requirements such as explanations regarding deviations in classification and coverage, links to more extensive papers, and others.

Although apps for this area of expertise are currently not abundant, quality and validity standards should be implemented to rate the provided information with special attention to the fallibility of non-systematic reviews. Keeping this in mind, we are currently in the process of examining an exemplary mobile app regarding its coverage quality of a specific subject (acute coronary syndrome) compared to the meta studies available in the Cochrane libraries as well as another, freely available database on the topic, with a further review of the provided information by an experienced Cochrane-analyst. Evaluation criteria include, e.g., completeness, actuality and relevance of the selection as well as coverage of the relevant facts. Validity and reliability of the content of the trial, relevance of content and usability of the app were also considered. While the reviewed app is promising and implements an interesting concept, not all of the criteria defined above are met.
Our preliminary study may serve as a starting point for an international discussion to implement the necessary criteria to address the aforementioned issues.