Engineering sustainable mHealth: the role of Action Research

The present paper aims to review the value of Action Research (AR) in the evolution of sustainable mHealth. On the one hand, mHealth is a medically and economically massively expanding domain. On the other hand, the mHealth development suffers from a serious lack of sustainability, which has become particularly evident through the concept of “pilotitis.” The proposed methodological remedy shows a high congruence to the principle of AR. A quantitative and qualitative literature research is performed. Each result from the qualitative literature research is analyzed with regard to aim, main focuses of AR methodology, study results and AR contribution to mHealth development. The principles of AR with regard to mHealth development are described, showing a strong connection between corresponding methodology and effects in health care. We analyze the quantitative contribution of AR to health care in general and show the typical phases of AR healthcare implementation. Furthermore, a quantitative literature research reveals that AR contributes to 6 % of mHealth publications. Our qualitative literature research discovers 27 studies dealing with AR contributions (54 % direct, 46 % methodological) to mHealth. Main subjects of the direct contributions are Health Information Systems (38 %), Surgery (23 %), Conservative/internal medicine (15 %), Self-help (15 %) and Medical Education (8 %). In summary, our review shows that AR contributes qualitatively and quantitatively to the mHealth development and that AR has a special potential to generate sustainable mHealth solutions.