Background & objectives: The potential benefits of mobile health (mHealth) initiatives to manage the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been explored. The Government of India, State governments, and healthcare organizations have developed various mobile apps for the containment of COVID-19. This study was aimed to systematically review COVID-19 related mobile apps and highlight gaps to inform the development of future mHealth initiatives.
Methods: Google Play and the Apple app stores were searched using the terms 'COVID-19', 'coronavirus', 'pandemic', and 'epidemic' in the first week of April 2020. A list of COVID-19-specific functions was compiled based on the review of the selected apps, the literature on epidemic surveillance, and national and international media reports. The World Health Organization guideline on Digital Health Interventions was used to classify the app functions under the categories of the general public, health workers, health system managers, and data services.
Results: The search yielded 346 potential COVID-19 apps, of which 50 met the inclusion criteria. Dissemination of untargeted COVID-19-related information on preventative strategies and monitoring the movements of quarantined individuals was the function of 27 (54%) and 19 (32%) apps, respectively. Eight (16%) apps had a contact tracing and hotspot identification function.
Interpretation & conclusions: Our study highlights the current emphasis on the development of self-testing, quarantine monitoring, and contact tracing apps. India's response to COVID-19 can be strengthened by developing comprehensive mHealth solutions for frontline healthcare workers, rapid response teams and public health authorities. Among this unprecedented global health emergency, the Governments must ensure the necessary but least intrusive measures for disease surveillance.


中文翻译：

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支持印度冠状病毒病2019反应的移动应用程序（apps）概述


背景与目标：研究了移动健康（mHealth）举措对管理2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行的潜在益处。印度政府，州政府和医疗机构已经开发出各种移动应用程序来容纳COVID-19。这项研究旨在系统地审查与COVID-19相关的移动应用程序，并突出差距以告知未来的mHealth计划的发展。
方法：在2020年4月的第一周，使用“ COVID-19”，“冠状病毒”，“大流行”和“流行”这两个词对Google Play和Apple应用商店进行了搜索。编译了基于COVID-19的特定功能列表有关所选应用程序的评论，流行病监测文献以及国内外媒体报道。世界卫生组织的数字健康干预指南用于将应用程序功能归类为公众，卫生工作者，卫生系统经理和数据服务。
结果：搜索产生了346个潜在的COVID-19应用程序，其中50个满足纳入标准。传播有关预防策略的未定向COVID-19相关信息以及监视被隔离个体的活动分别是27（54％）和19（32％）个应用程序的功能。八（16％）个应用程序具有联系人跟踪和热点识别功能。
解释和结论：我们的研究突出了当前对自检，隔离监控和联系人跟踪应用程序的开发的重视。通过为一线医护人员，快速反应小组和公共卫生当局开发综合的mHealth解决方案，可以加强印度对COVID-19的反应。在这种前所未有的全球卫生紧急情况中，各国政府必须确保采取必要但最不侵入性的措施进行疾病监测。