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Transforming usage data into a sustainable mobile health solution

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Abstract

Mobile health systems typically target patients with widely varying backgrounds, expertise, and needs. These systems must therefore be able to adapt easily to suit the preferences and needs of individual users in the identified patient community. This paper explains how usage logs in a mobile health system can be analyzed to understand how different patients use the system over a period of time. It defines a system usage model built on key interaction events which are captured and then analyzed to obtain patterns of patient behaviour. Based on the patterns of usage obtained from a live mobile health system, the paper shows how the usage model can be used by the mobile health system to drive its day-to-day interactions with the patient. This type of adaptation can significantly influence the sustainability and diffusion of a mobile health initiative into the target patient market.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of The West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

    Salys Sultan & Permanand Mohan

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  1. Salys Sultan
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  2. Permanand Mohan
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Correspondence to Salys Sultan.

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Responsible editor: Doug Vogel

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Sultan, S., Mohan, P. Transforming usage data into a sustainable mobile health solution. Electron Markets 23, 63–72 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-012-0090-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-012-0090-6

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