Prioritizing the Potential Applications of Mobile-Health in the Iranian Health System

Access and the use of information and communication technology, especially mobile phones, have expanded significantly in recent years; therefore, we aimed to rank the potential applications of mobile apps in the Iranian health system. Study Design: A multi-attribute decision making design.

First, the main applications of apps and also the related attributes for prioritization were extracted from a systematic and comparative review of studies. Then, the weight of these attributes was extracted using the Shannon Entropy method. The values of attributes for each application were questioned by the 11 experts. By having the decision matrix and the weight of attributes, the applications were separately weighted and ranked using four MADM techniques. Finally, using the Copeland technique, the results of different techniques were combined, and a final ranking was achieved.

Based on the results extracted from the studies and the opinions of experts, 8 main applications, and, 14 attributes were determined and entered into the modeling phase. The most significant weight obtained was related to “the feasibility of monitoring activities” (weight=0.220), and the least was related to “the feasibility of access to apps in any location” (weight=0.017).

The apps related to the physicians' access to patients’ health information had the highest priority, and the apps related to the selection of proper health behavior patterns had the least priority.