Foundational knowledge - The process of mHealth software development

2. Initial Planning and Concept Development

During the planning phase, thoroughly assess and describe the problem or health system constraint, the end-users, and the programmatic and policy context of the problem to have a firm foundation for selecting or formulating a potential mHealth solution (Matthew-Maich et al., 2016). When starting a new project, the scope of the project, the time frame, the budget, and the resources need to be considered (Davies & Mueller, 2020).

At the beginning of the design process, the capabilities, and functions that the platform must have to support the intervention need to be defined and established. Mobile devices can collect large amounts of data electronically, especially monitoring data, so ethical considerations such as data protection and usability must be discussed (Davies & Mueller, 2020; Yanxia et al., 2020).

• Based on these requirements, determine whether open-source tools and platforms can be used. Building on existing open-source platforms can save time and expense.
• If needed, determine how the solution will link to or be compatible with the existing health information system.
• Build into the platform the capacity to collect monitoring and evaluation data, if possible.
• Assess and include any relevant regulatory frameworks and legislation to assure data protection for users.