Championing preventive care in ObGyn: A tool to evaluate for useful medical apps
An ACOG Presidential Task Force offers a rubric for ObGyns to apply in assessing the utility and security of health apps that may aid in addressing 5 areas of preventive health care
The Task Force’s recommended rubric
The rubric shown for evaluating mobile drug information apps was developed by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). The ASHP rubric takes into account the criteria recognized by the APA pyramid, the HON Foundation, and the AHRQ and incorporates them into a user-friendly tool and scoring system that can be applied as an evaluation checklist.9 This tool is meant to aid clinicians in evaluating medical apps, but it ultimately is the user’s decision to determine if an app’s deficiencies should deter its use.
While all of the criteria are relevant and important, it is incumbent on us as medical experts to pay careful attention to the accuracy, authority, objectivity, timeliness, and security of any app we consider incorporating into clinical practice. A low score on these criteria would belie any perceived usefulness or value the app may have.
When applying the rubric to evaluate the quality of an app, we should be mindful of the primary user and which characteristics are more important than others to effect positive changes in health. For example, in addressing obesity, it is the patient who will be interacting with the app. Therefore, it’s important that the app should score, on a 1- to 4-point scale (1 point being major deficiencies, 4 points being no deficiencies), a 4 out of 4 on features like usefulness, functionality, and design. Coveted design features that enhance the user’s experience will appeal to patients and keep them engaged and motivated. However, when addressing a woman’s health with respect to cancer risk, the principal features on which the app should score 4 out of 4 would be authority, objectivity, timeliness, and accuracy.
In the upcoming articles in this series, a member of the Presidential Task Force will reference the ASHP rubric to guide clinicians in choosing apps to address one of the critical health areas with their patients. The author of the piece will highlight key features of an app to consider what would add the most value in incorporating its use in clinical practice.
It would be impossible to evaluate all health care apps even if we focused only on the medical apps relevant to obstetrics and gynecology. There is much value in having a framework for efficiently measuring an app’s benefit in clinical practice. The objective of this article series is to help clinicians Revisit the Visit by providing an effective tool to evaluate a medical app. ●
