The Challenges Toward Real-world Implementation of Digital Health Design Approaches: Narrative Review

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Healthcare Design
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Digital health is a key strategy for future healthcare delivery.
• Mobile health has increased user agency, but efficacy and uptake questions persist.
• Integrating digital and health industries presents unique design and implementation challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review prominent digital health intervention design approaches.
• To examine the origins, benefits, nuances, challenges, and use cases of each methodology.

Main Methods:

• A narrative review of digital health design approaches was conducted.
• Keywords included "digital health design," "mHealth design," "e-Health design," "agile health."
• 62 studies were selected from 120 for full-text review.

Main Results:

• Identified five overarching digital health design approaches: user-centered, person-based, human-centered, patient-centered, and patient-led design.
• Synthesized findings on origins, advantages, disadvantages, challenges, and use-case scenarios for each approach.

Conclusions:

• Digital health faces challenges balancing user satisfaction and clinical efficacy.
• Transdisciplinary research and collaboration between digital and health experts are crucial.
• Viewing digital health as a hybridized industry is key to realizing design approach nuances.