Implications of Mobile Health Technology in Iran Healthcare System, a Review

Background: Mobile devices have provided new opportunities for health care system in developing countries. Despite the benefits that can be realised from mHealth, there isn t still evidence on the status and the direction of mHealth research in these countries. Objectives: The aime of this study were to review Iranian published research on the application ofmHealth which aiming to evaluate the effect of mobile phones on health system. Materials/Patients and Methods: In this review of the literature, Pubmed, were searched using the keywords, mHealth , mobile health, text message, cellular phone, mobile phone, telemedicine, m-health, text messaging, text message, short message service, sms, eHealth AND Iran[Affiliation] in PubMed(20 Apr. 2016). The English keywords were equivalent to Persian words and Search in the Iranian databases including IranMedex, and Scientific Information Database (SID). The titles and abstracts of 324 studies were reviewed by two authors. The full text was obtained for 24 references identified as potentially meeting the inclusion criteria. Results: Text messaging was the basic mobile phone features used. Most of the studies reported consistently significant effects of mHealth interventions on outcomes in promoting patients’ self-care, reminders for treatment adherence and health management. Conclusion: Research interest in mHealth is growing. The awareness of the research in field allows a better understanding of new opportunities offered by new mobile technologies and can enlighten future.