Mobile apps to enhance student learning in medical education: A systematic search in app stores and evaluation using...

Mobile phone applications have emerged as a useful tool for integrating information and communication technologies into medical education. However, selecting a valuable application for medical education has become more complex and challenging.

The objective of this research is to analyze and assess different medical education mobile apps, with the aim of offering support and enhancing medical courses, while also ensuring the creation of suitable learning experiences in the field of medical education.

The PRISMA method was employed to search for mobile applications on the Google Play website. Applications that met the established criteria were assessed using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) tool. Four evaluators independently downloaded and evaluated the applications. To ensure consensus among evaluators and measurement reliability, the internal correlation criterion (ICC) (Two-Way Mixed type) was calculated based on the evaluators' assessment results.

Out of the initial 409 mobile phone applications identified, only 30 applications were considered suitable for the study. Many applications were excluded because they were not relevant to medical education or lacked content in English. The evaluation results from the experts showed a high level of reliability (ICC3k 0.97, 95 % CI 0.95 to 0.98). Among the assessed criteria of the MARS, the Embryology Quiz program achieved the highest score, with an average total score of 4.41. More than half of the applications (20 out of 30 applications) received an acceptable MARS score (>0.3). The results indicate a weak correlation between the subjective quality (the likelihood of recommending the application to others for educational purposes in medicine) sub-criterion and the MARS score.

The medical education apps are generally excelling in terms of functionality, Information, Aesthetics, and Engagement as MARS sub-criteria. However, in the subjective quality criterion, the apps did not achieve a satisfactory score. While the apps have received acceptable scores in all MARS sub-criteria, they have fallen short in the criterion specifically assessing the program's effectiveness in medical education by subjective quality criterion. This suggests that certain key sub-criteria influencing program effectiveness in medical education may not be adequately captured by MARS sub-criteria alone. This research identifies the need for developers to enhance application customization in terms of training and user interaction. Additionally, the study recommends improvements to the MARS tool for evaluating the program's effectiveness in delivering impactful training.