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The health and well-being of informal caregivers often take a backseat to those that they care for. While systems, technologies, and services that provide care and support for those with chronic illnesses are established and continuously improved, those that support informal caregivers are less explored. An international survey about motivations to use mHealth technologies was posted to online platforms related to chronic illnesses. We focused on responses regarding the facilitators and challenges of achieving health goals, including the use of mHealth technologies, for the subgroup who identified as "Caregivers". Findings indicate that mHealth technology is not yet the most important motivational factor for achieving health goals in this group, but greater future potential is suggested.

The rapid improvement in mobile health technologies revolutionized what and how people can self-record and manage data. This massive amount of information accumulated by these technologies has potentially many applications beyond personal need, i.e. for public health. A challenge with collecting this data is to motivate people to share this data for the benefit of all. The purpose of this study is to survey and examine factors that may motivate sharing this data. We asked 447 participants four questions related to health data sharing and motivation. Participants with a chronic disease were concerned about data sharing but also willing to share health data if personalized feedback is provided. Functionality, ease of use, and privacy are regarded as crucial features of health apps.

The widespread adoption of smartphones creates an enormous potential to improve healthcare services. Numerous apps, sensors, and devices are developed for health self-management purposes. However, adoption rates remain low and long-term user engagement is a major issue. The goal of this study is to identify major motivational factors that can facilitate prolonged use of mobile health systems. To this end, we conducted 16 interviews with representatives of various cultural backgrounds, disease history, age, and gender. Participants' experiences indicated that existing systems were unable to answer their self-management needs properly. People with a disease history favored learning from data, as well as from others via social media integration. People without chronic disease felt more reserved about social media integration. In conclusion, systems that collect and share personal data should have a clear opt-in or opt-out option to motivate usage. Additionally, researchers and mobile health system developers could achieve long-term adoption by giving clear answers to privacy and trust issues, while offering people strong added value according to their individual needs.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most prevalent blood inherited disorder in the world. Patients suffer from several chronic issues, comorbidities and high-mortality rates. Despite its prevalence, the disease remains largely ignored. A literature review was conducted and a questionnaire was sent to patients in order to understand the potential of e-health tools to support people with SCD. Additionally, focus groups have been conducted to detail respondents' answers. The results showed that patients felt isolated and misunderstood. They also highlighted patients' wishes for a social network able to make them feel less scattered. Using participatory-design techniques, we designed a prototype of user-centric interface for an online self-supportive SCD patient community. The mock-ups include chatrooms, forums and videoconferences capabilities. They illustrate how SCD patients' social networking and caregivers-patient relationship needs could be met. Future work will focus on the implementation and evaluation of the system.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most prevalent inherited blood disorder in the world. The symptoms decrease the quality of life of patients and can cause premature death. Self-help solutions for chronic patients are rising and increase the quality of life of patients. We are interested to identify the usefulness of eHealth tools for patients with SCD. We did a literature review to identify the main problems faced by patients and the existing eHealth solutions. The results show a low number of studies in the field but a multi-disciplinary interest. Positive health benefits for patients are reported as well as the need for more research. Patients and caregivers lack of education about the disease, healthy behaviors are unknown and clinical best practices underused. E-health tools can offer an appropriate support for the self-management of SCD by improving the quality of life of patients, by enhancing patient health literacy and by allowing clinicians to make better decisions.