The Potential Use of Digital Health in Iran: A Systematic Mapping Review

Digital health technologies are transforming healthcare delivery globally. The purpose of the current study was to identify and map the current status of digital health applications in Iran through providing graphical/tabular classifications on the studies conducted in this field.

Following PRISMA guidelines, relevant English-language papers on digital health in Iran published from 2012 until 2023 in online scientific databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and IEEE Xplore were screened. A total of 97 papers were selected for data extraction data including digital heath technologies, medical fields, application areas and users.

The number of publications has grown considerably since 2016. The most common digital health technologies were artificial intelligence including machine learning (34%), mobile health (25%) and telehealth (16%). These were mostly applied in infections (16%), nutrition/metabolism disorders (13%), mental health (20%) and cancers (12%). The key application areas were education (21%), therapy (16%) and diagnosis (15%). The primary users were patients (45%) and healthcare professionals (42%).

Digital health studies in Iran are continuously evolving. The activities are focused on a few technologies like artificial intelligence, with applications in diverse medical subfields for objectives like education and diagnosis. These results help identify research gaps and future directions for advancing digital health in Iran.