To the editor: New approaches toward actionable mobile health evaluation

Hensher et al1 offer an impressive review of the app evaluation space. The scope and depth of their review is a boon to the literature, with great applicability across diverse health domains. However, one concern is that the authors may fall prey to the same issues that they seek to caution readers about. The authors note in the discussion that outcomes of app evaluation systems without scoring “often seemed to be subjective” in a clear subjective statement for which they offer no supporting results or citations. The authors cite our team’s 2018 review article to support their claim that “consistent with previous studies, which highlight the importance of point-scale approach,” w hich is odd, as this is neither the message nor the conclusion that we wrote in that article cited. Rather, we noted that “perhaps point-based evaluation will be more useful in the near future” after reviewing a lack of consensus and convergence in these point based approaches.2 In this same cited article, we illustrate the merits of a pyramid-based framework developed in conjunction with the American Psychiatric Association,3,4 which the authors suggest might “reduce the credibility and validity of the evaluation process” for reasons that are not explained. There are many approaches to app evaluation, and each holds merit, but without a discussion based on facts there cannot be progress.
Source: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association - Category: Information Technology Source Type: research