Challenges in Developing Secure Mobile Health Applications, A Systematic Review

• Main Authors: Aljedaani, Bakheet, Babar, M. Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 21-07-2020
• Subjects: Computer Science - Software Engineering
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2007.10876

Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have gained significant
popularity over the last few years due to its tremendous benefits, such as
lowering healthcare cost and increasing patient awareness. However, the
sensitivity of healthcare data makes the security of mHealth apps a serious
concern. In this review, we aim to identify and analyse the reported challenges
that the developers of mHealth apps face concerning security. Additionally, our
study aimed to develop a conceptual framework with the challenges faced by
mHealth apps development organization for developing secure apps. The knowledge
of such challenges can help to reduce the risk of developing insecure mHealth
apps. We followed the Systematic Literature Review method for this review. We
selected studies that have been published between January 2008 and October
2020. We selected 32 primary studies using predefined criteria and used
thematic analysis method for analysing the extracted data. We identified nine
challenges that can affect the development of secure mHealth apps. Such as 1)
lack of security guidelines and regulations for developing secure mHealth apps,
2) developers lack of knowledge and expertise for secure mHealth app
development, 3) lack of stakeholders involvement during mHealth app
development, etc . Based on our analysis, we have presented a conceptual
framework which highlights the correlation between the identified challenges.
We conclude that our findings can help them identify their weaknesses and
improve their security practices. Similarly, mHealth apps developers can
identify the challenges they face to develop mHealth apps that do not pose
security risks for users. Our review is a step towards providing insights into
the development of secure mHealth apps. Our proposed conceptual framework can
act as a practice guideline for practitioners to enhance secure mHealth apps
development.