Harnessing the power of mHealth to improve cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the most common cause of mortality globally, with health behaviors including smoking, inactivity, and poor diet contributing 80% of the risk for CV disease. If these risk factors could be modified, many lives could be saved. Unfortunately, the prevalence of many CV risk factors has plateaued or is rising despite current efforts, suggesting the need for innovative approaches, including mobile health (mHealth) interventions.

Widespread distribution of smartphones has the potential to provide health-related interventions to large populations at low cost, However, mHealth apps carry the potential for harm as well—a fact that is often overlooked by consumers. Poorly designed apps have been linked to falsely measured blood pressure, exacerbation of eating disorders, and compromised personal data security.

A review of current literature reveals that only a very small percentage of apps available on the apps store were validated for efficacy and safety. Other apps that were validated are not available on commercial app stores. Health organizations worldwide are trying to develop a process to validate new apps to improve cardiovascular health. We review the NHS Digital assessment of mobile Apps platform as a tool to create a library of apps that healthcare providers can prescribe.

Conclusions; Smartphone apps to address behavioral CV risk factors have a unique potential to transform CV risk reduction. The ability of smartphone apps to integrate data from multiple sources, including devices that monitor activity, heart rate, glucose level, and blood pressure, and questionnaires that are filled by the patient will provide a more personalized intervention with a higher resolution of data than ever before. However, apps designed to improve cardiovascular health should be validated for efficacy and safety as other interventions before we can prescribe apps.