Table 2.

Final framework for app characteristics categorization, including description for selected subcategories.

Categories of app characteristics and subcategories		Description
Feature or purpose
	Medication reminder	Reminds user to take medication dose in real time
	Shares data and reports with others	When chosen, ability to share health data managed in the app with other people (family member and health care professional)
	Education about medication	Information about medication (eg, benefits, side effects, interactions, and use)
	Identifies pills	Identifies unknown pill, usually through the phone’s camera and the appearance
	Checks for drug interactions	After entering two or more medications (or medication with food or alcohol), the checker will evaluate the risk of their interactions
	Tracks symptoms, side effects, health data, and vitals	Tracks user’s measurements (eg, blood glucose, blood pressure, weight, pulse, temperature, mood, and sleep patterns), symptoms of disease, and side effects
	Manages profiles of multiple users	Within one app, there is an option to have medication profiles of several people (eg, other family members)
	Synchronization with other apps or devices	The app has the ability to synchronize itself and the entered data with another mobile app or device (eg, Apple Watch)
	Data privacy and security	Different forms of information privacy (eg, password) and security; privacy policies are transparent and easy to find; and advanced protection of health data
	Medication management (MM) is not the primary aim of the app	Medication-related functions are not the primary focus of the app, for example, many fitness apps have mainly other features, and the medication component simply represents a minor piece
	Other features	Describing any other features, not listed above
Author Affiliation
	Academia	Developed by or in affiliation with university or other forms of academia
	Health care professionals	Developed by or in affiliation with health care professionals, health centers, and hospitals
	Software industry	Including software companies or independent software developers
	Other	Affiliations not listed above; usually charities, nonprofits, and government organizations; pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies; various level of health care professional involvement; therefore, the apps under this subcategory may have input from health experts
	Insufficient information	The affiliation cannot be found
Specialty in Medication
	Diabetes	App specialized in MM for diabetes-specific medication
	Women’s reproductive health	App specialized in the management of contraceptive pills or women’s reproductive health-specific medication
	Cardiovascular health	App specialized in MM for heart and blood circulation–specific medication
	Lifestyle management	App specialized in lifestyle management, often offering MM as one of the several features
	Neurology	App specialized in MM for neurology-specific medication
	Mental health	App specialized in MM for mental health–specific medication
	Oncology	App specialized in MM for cancer-specific medication
	Hematology	App specialized in MM for hematology-specific medication
	Lungs, allergy, and immunity	App specialized in MM of drugs for allergy, asthma, lung disease, and immune system–specific medication
	Veterinary medicine	App specialized in MM for pets
	Digestive system	App specialized in MM for gastrointestinal-specific medication
	Other specialty	Specialty not included in the list
	Without specialty	General MM, for use with any medication
User Interface
	Static only	Provides minimal interaction with the user—does not work with individual user’s data, just displays the same content for everybody; only available interaction is for navigation and settings; usually presents information
	Single dynamic feature	Provides one interactive component; compared with the multiple dynamic category, apps in this category often have only a basic pill reminder and no other features
	Multiple dynamic features	Solutions in this category are more comprehensive, with more than one dynamic feature. Dynamic user interface is defined as providing the opportunity to input one’s individual data into the app and being able to interact with the app (eg, tracking health data, warning if set parameters are exceeded, games, and communication)
Cost
	Free	The app itself was available for free. However, some of the apps in this category had the option of purchasing extra content or features (referred to as in-app purchases). These apps were coded as free and the cost for the optional in-app purchases was listed at the same time—under the next column cost
	Price	Includes price for the app itself or price for the in-app purchases (available also in free apps)
	Currency or country	Encoded to determine the currency that was used; later, all the prices can be converted into the same currency for comparison and descriptive statistics
	Notes	Explains details related to the listed price—whether the price is for the app itself, regular subscriptions, or in-app purchases
User Rating
	Number of stars	1 star-5 stars
	Number of ratings per app	Total number of ratings in the app store available for the given app; if the information was presented by the app store