How Full is Your CART? | An Evidence-Based Assessment of Mental Health Applications

Mobile health (mHealth) — the use of portable devices in healthcare settings — is growing exponentially due to innovative advances and increased use of mobile devices. As mobile technology has become more accepted in psychosocial wellness care, advancements in mHealth have triggered a growing demand for easy-to-access, mobile, mental health applications (MHAs). There seems to be an app for almost anything in the mobile app market, and mobile devices are notably more advanced; some carry the processing power of a laptop.

The portability of mobile devices, their ease of use, cost and connectivity make them ideal for providing mental health services. In this session, we’ll take a look at how FirstNet® is elevating first responder health by ensuring mHealth apps are evidence-based prior to inclusion in the FirstNet ® app catalog. This allows for better first responder outcomes and potentially lowers the capital cost of healthcare for first responder and providers. Better use of applications can also improve communication between the provider and first responder.

In this session, we will present the results of the A-CART assessment tool for MHAs content quality, security, usability, availability, performance, appearance, adaptability, and accuracy. And we will review recommendations for their adoption by public safety organizations.

By the end of this presentation attendees will be able to:

• Identify the need for evidence-informed mental health applications
• Identify the importance of evidence-informed mental health applications for first responders.
• Use the A-CART to assess any healthcare application for credibility.