This presentation provides a summary of the scientific article titled “Connected Health in Multiple Sclerosis: a mobile applications review” by Guido Giunti, Estefania Guisado-Fernandez and Brian Caulfield submitted to IEEE CBMS 2017. It offers insight on the different app functionalities; the proportion of each type; intended audiences; and developing entities. See full article at :http://arxiv.org/abs/1705.03227

1. Connected Health in Multiple
Sclerosis: a mobile applications
review
Estefania Guisado-Fernandez
University College Dublin, Ireland
Guido Giunti
Salumedia Tecnologias, Spain
Brian Caulfield
University College Dublin, Ireland

2. This presentation provides a summary of the
scientific article titled “Connected Health in
Multiple Sclerosis: a mobile applications
review” by Guido Giunti, Estefania Guisado-
Fernandez and Brian Caulfield submitted to IEEE
CBMS 2017.
ABOUT THIS PRESENTATION
Please cite this paper as:
Giunti G, Guisado-Fernandez E, Caulfield B. Connected Health in Multiple Sclerosis: a mobile
applications review. IEEE Int Symp Comput Med Syst. 2017;(June). http://arxiv.org/abs/1705.03227.

3. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under the Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 676201. http://www.chessitn.eu
ABOUT THIS PRESENTATION

4. Salumedia Tecnologias is a Digital Health SME from Spain who is part of the CHESS ITN programme and hosts
Guido Giunti MD (PhD) as part of his Industrial PhD training. http://www.salumedia.com
ABOUT THIS PRESENTATION

5. The need for integrated care systems
Connecting the dots

6. • It encompassess terms such as wireless, digital,
electronic, mobile, and tele-health
• It’s conceptual model for health management
where devices, services or interventions are
designed around the patient’s needs
• All stakeholders in the process are ‘connected’
by means of timely sharing of information
regarding the patient status
CONNECTED HEALTH

7. HEALTH MOBILE APPLICATIONS
>165,000
Heatlh Mobile Applications

8. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease in
which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of
the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to
demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum
of signs and symptoms
WHAT IS MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS?

9. Predominant age: 20-40
Higher incidence in
Northern European
descent and in
temperate climates
Twice as
much in
females
worse
prognosis
Progress is highly variable and unpredictable
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS DEMOGRAPHICS
400,000
people
have Multiple Sclerosis in
United States of America
600,000
people
have Multiple Sclerosis in
Europe
2,500,000
people
have Multiple Sclerosis in the
World

10. And how we went around finding the
answer…
Asking the question

11. Multiple Sclerosis Apps
• What is the landscape of Multiple Sclerosis
health applications?
• What kind of applications are available?
• Who are these applications for?
• Who is making these applications?

12. METHODOLOGY
• A cross-sectional study of MS apps was performed
to characterize apps from the two major smartphone
app stores in June 2016
• Stores were searched for apps with the keywords
“multiple sclerosis” using the audience targeting
platform 42matters.com
• Title and description were examined to classify
applications according to Data Coding
• Basic and “premium” versions of the same app were
considered as separate entries as were versions of the
same app for different operating systems

13. DATA CODING
Application Purpose
• Awareness-raising: tools to raise public recognition of MS as a problem, tools for fundraising, etc.
• Disease and treatment information: provide general information about MS (eg, disease or treatment
options)
• Disease management: provide information and practical tools to deal with the medical, behavioral, or
emotional aspects of MS
• Physical Rehabilitation: provide information and practical tools to deal with the medical, behavioral,
or emotional aspects of MS
• Support: provide access to peer or professional assistance

14. DATA CODING
Application Origin
•Healthcare related Agency
•Governmental Agency
•Non-governmental Agency
•Educational Organizations
•Conferences and Journals
•Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
•Individuals

15. DATA CODING
Application Target Audience
•Patient-oriented
•Clinician-oriented

16. What did we find out?
Unlocking the mystery

17. RESULTS
• A total of 1,622 apps matched the search terms of
“multiple sclerosis”. 68 matches were from the
iTunes App Store and 1,554 from the Google Play
Store.
• A random sample (n=168) was independently
reviewed by two reviewers (GG and EGF)
• Inter-rater reliability was determined using Fleiss-
Cohen’s Kappa and found to be more than
acceptable at 0.84 (SE 0.03 CI 95% 0.78 – 0.89).
• After removing duplicates and going through the
selection criteria only 25 apps remained (15 for iOS
and 10 for Android)

18. DATA CODING
Application Purpose
iOS MS AppsAndroid MS Apps

19. DATA CODING
Application Target Audience

20. DATA CODING
Application Origin

21. DATA CODING
Application Target Audience

22. RESULTS
To the left is a list of all Multiple Sclerosis
applications found for this review. They
appear classified as they were and the
download URL is shown.

23. What does it all mean?
Thoughts evoked

24. DISCUSSION
• This is the first review of MS mobile applications
commercially available to patients, health
professionals and public in general
• This study describes the different app
functionalities; the proportion of each type; intended
audiences; and developing entities.
• The major contributors to the mobile application
ecosystem for persons with MS are start-ups and
entrepreneurs. No governmental agency has
launched an mHealth solution for MS
• The small amount of MS apps (n=25) is in stark
contrast with the reality for other conditions such as
cancer (n=295 in 2013), diabetes (n=137 in 2009) or
HIV (n=124 in 2013)
Principal Findings
• Keyword selection might have unintentionally
excluded relevant apps from our search results
• Focus on English language applications probably
also excluded relevant MS apps
• The study doesn’t include apps or mHealth
solutions present in the literature
Study Limitations

25. CONCLUSIONS
Takeaway message
There is an interesting gap in the current repertoire of mHealth solutions for persons with MS.
It could prove important to address this as it might be a channel to reach persons with MS in a
way that’s engaging and empowers them.
Empowered persons with MS can be more active in their own health management and decision
making process.

26. IMAGE SOURCES
1. Future Technology - A portable body scanner scanning in X-rays.
https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/future-technology-portable-body-scanner-scanning-
75642166
2. Caulfield BM, Donnelly SC. What is connected health and why will it change your practice? Qjm.
2013;106(8):703-707. doi:10.1093/qjmed/hct114.
3. Multiple sclerosis world map - DALY - WHO2004.svg. Lokal_Profil [CC BY-SA 2.5
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
4. Meevy, June 2015; IMS Health, AppScript, June 2015; IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics,
August 2015
5. Neurons with myelin sheath and Neurons with damaged myelin sheath. Copyright © Nucleus
Medical Media, Inc.
6. Häggström, Mikael (2014). "Medical gallery of Mikael Häggström 2014". WikiJournal of Medicine 1
(2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.008. ISSN 2002-4436. Public Domain.
7. Survey icon. http://www.freeiconspng.com/img/19198
8. Connected Healthcare image. http://www.wipro.com/services/wp-
content/uploads/sites/6/2015/05/connected-healthcare.jpg
9. Doctor Patient Icon. https://dribbble.com/shots/3028817-Doctor-Patient-Icon
10. Summarize image. http://www.bluenettech.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/summarize.png
Copyright for the images used in this presentation belongs to their respective owners. The images used for
this presentation were extracted from the following sources in order of appearance:

27. Thank you for
your attention!
@buscandoagodot