Enabling Psychiatrists to be Mobile Phone App Developers: Insights Into App Development Methodologies.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Mobile Health (mHealth)
• Educational Technology

Background:

• Mobile phone use in healthcare is rising, offering access to information and communication.
• A gap exists in critically appraising health apps due to a lack of clinician technical expertise.
• Developing evidence-based mobile health applications requires accessible tools for healthcare professionals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present two free methodologies for developing Web-based mobile phone applications.
• To demonstrate integrating multimedia and interactive content without programming knowledge.
• To enable clinicians to create mobile apps for academic, educational, and research use.

Main Methods:

• Utilized two online mobile app builders (website builder and app builder).
• Integrated text, interactive videos, and RSS feeds into mobile applications.
• Included a questionnaire survey to assess user perceptions of the developed app.

Main Results:

• Successfully converted an online psychiatry textbook into two mobile Web-based apps.
• Achieved significant user engagement with over 21,991 unique users for the WordPress app.
• Survey results indicated high student value for app content and a perceived benefit for psychiatry education.

Conclusions:

• Freely available methodologies empower clinicians to develop mobile apps without programming skills.
• Facilitates the creation of more evidence-based mobile health applications for education and research.
• Addresses the need for clinician-appraised mobile resources in healthcare and education.