Stroke apps fail to meet basic criteria

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth 

An Auckland professor has led the first systematic review of digital technologies for stroke prevention, which found that only 20 apps met the study’s recommended criteria for stroke prevention digital tools.

Valery Feigin, professor of epidemiology and neurology at AUT, says health professionals should play a central role in digitising health care provision, including clinical trials and evaluation of the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of digital tools.

He was the lead author on the review recently published in the international journal Stroke, which looked at more than 2300 web and mobile apps. It found the quality varied significantly and only 20 met the article’s recommended criteria for stroke prevention digital tools.

Most apps only provided information about stroke risks with no functionality or guidance on how to reduce those risks.

“Digital technologies that do not meet the basic criteria, which are not scientifically sound and do not have evidence-based content, should not be used for stroke prevention,” says Feigin.

“Companies like Apple and Google should request evidence of the scientific soundness of health-related apps and their content from developers before new products are submitted.”

He adds that there is a lack of scientifically accurate and valid digital tools specifically aimed at primary stroke prevention and, “virtually no evidence for the ability of digital tools to improve long-term health behaviours.”

“We suggest a criteria for basic, advanced, and ideal digital technologies for stroke prevention, as well as an ecosystem for such technologies to support the transformation of an organisation-centred health care model to a patient-centred health care model.”

The review shows that, while all 20 apps that met the criteria were properly validated, only three met the requirements for an ‘ideal’ digital tool for primary stroke prevention.

Of those three, only PreventS-MD and the Stroke Riskometer were specifically designed for both primary and secondary stroke prevention, and applied motivational strategies.

Picture: Valery Feigin, professor of epidemiology and neurology at AUT


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