Abstract
Purpose of Review
What is the goal of your paper? What questions did you seek to answer? Digital health is an emerging discipline that utilizes hardware and software tools to improve healthcare delivery efficiency and accessibility. Technologies that fall under the digital health umbrella include mobile phone applications, telemedicine, and social media networks. The goal of this review is to highlight two mobile phone applications that were developed for premature ejaculation and Peyronie’s disease.
Recent Findings
Summarize the latest research on your topic. Through the course of our review, we aim to highlight how these applications were conceived, the manner in which users interface with these tools and future directions for these software solutions. We identified that patients and practitioners alike are creating digital health solutions based upon personal and clinical experiences.
Summary
What answers did you find? What are the major takeaways/conclusions of your examination? What’s the impact on future research? The major takeaway of our examination is that digital health is an emerging area of innovation and investigation. Existing solutions however need further real-world evaluation to assess their clinical validity.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance
• Alami H, Gagnon M-P, Fortin J-P. Digital health and the challenge of health systems transformation. mHealth. 2017;3:31 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28894741. Herein, Alami et al. overview how digital health is impacting care delivery and detail how these technologies can have long-term ramifications on traditional care pathways.
Mathews SC, McShea MJ, Hanley CL, Ravitz A, Labrique AB, Cohen AB. Digital health: a path to validation. NPJ Digit Med. 2019;2:38 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31304384.
Khan N, Marvel FA, Wang J, Martin SS. Digital health technologies to promote lifestyle change and adherence. Curr Treat Options Cardiovasc Med. 2017;19(8):60.
Sharma A, Harrington RA, McClellan MB, Turakhia MP, Eapen ZJ, Steinhubl S, et al. Using digital health technology to better generate evidence and deliver evidence-based care. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2018;71(23):2680–90.
Murray E, Hekler EB, Andersson G, Collins LM, Doherty A, Hollis C, et al. Evaluating digital health interventions: key questions and approaches. Am J Prev Med. 2016;51(5):843–51.
Huckvale K, Venkatesh S, Christensen H. Toward clinical digital phenotyping: a timely opportunity to consider purpose, quality, and safety. NPJ Digit Med. 2019;2:88 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31508498.
Guidances with Digital Health Content | FDA [Internet]. [cited 2019 Dec 4]; Available from: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/digital-health/guidances-digital-health-content
Digital Health | FDA [Internet]. [cited 2019 Dec 4]; Available from: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/digital-health
WHO. WHO guideline recommendations on digital interventions for health system strengthening. 2019.
•• Balasubramanian A, Yu J, Srivatsav A, Spitz A, Eisenberg M, Thirumavalavan N, et al. A review of the evolving landscape between the consumer Internet and men’s Transl Androl Urol. 2020;9(2):S123–S134. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32257853/In this article, Balasubramanian et al. overview how the internet is transforming how patient’s make therapeautic decisions and how internet tools are augmenting care delivery for male infertility, erectile dysfunction, and Peyronie’s disease.
Serefoglu EC, CG MM, Waldinger MD, Althof SE, Shindel A, Adaikan G, et al. An evidence-based unified definition of lifelong and acquired premature ejaculation: report of the second international society for sexual medicine ad hoc committee for the definition of premature ejaculation. Sex Med. 2014;2(2):41–59 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25356301.
Shabsigh R. Diagnosing premature ejaculation: a review. J Sex Med. 2006;3(Suppl 4):318–23 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16939476.
Symonds T, Roblin D, Hart K, Althof S. How does premature ejaculation impact a man's life? J Sex Marital Ther. 29(5):361–70 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14504007.
McMahon CG. Premature ejaculation. Indian J Urol. 2007;23(2):97–108 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19675782.
Cooper K, Martyn-St James M, Kaltenthaler E, Dickinson K, Cantrell A, Wylie K, et al. Behavioral therapies for management of premature ejaculation: a systematic review. Sex Med. 2015;3(3):174–88 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26468381.
• Pea–The Premature Ejaculation App | How To Last Longer in Bed [Internet]. [cited 2019 Dec 4]; Available from: https://www.getpea.com/. This reference provides a first hand look at how a digital health tool designed to treat premature ejaculation is directly marketed to patients.
Pea – The Premature Ejaculation App - Personal training | Product Hunt [Internet]. [cited 2019 Dec 4];Available from: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/pea-the-premature-ejaculation-app
McMahon CG, Jannini EA, Serefoglu EC, Hellstrom WJG. The pathophysiology of acquired premature ejaculation. Transl Androl Urol. 2016;5(4):434–49 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27652216.
Elliott S, Belich BN, Lee AHX. 182 Pea App: a novel app for premature ejaculation. J Sex Med. 2018;15(2):S56–7 Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1743609517317642.
Bilgutay AN, Pastuszak AW. Peyronie’s disease: What’s around the bend? Indian J Urol. 32(1):6–14 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26941488.
Matsushita K, Stember DS, Nelson CJ, Mulhall JP. Concordance between patient and physician assessment of the magnitude of Peyronie’s disease curvature. J Sex Med. 2014;11(1):205–10 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24119178.
Hsi RS, Hotaling JM, Hartzler AL, Holt SK, Walsh TJ. Validity and reliability of a smartphone application for the assessment of penile deformity in Peyronie’s disease. J Sex Med. 2013;10(7):1867–73 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23551808.
Ohebshalom M, Mulhall J, Guhring P, Parker M. Measurement of penile curvature in Peyronie’s disease patients: comparison of three methods. J Sex Med. 2007;4(1):199–203 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17233785.
Bacal V, Rumohr J, Sturm R, Lipshultz LI, Schumacher M, Grober ED. Correlation of degree of penile curvature between patient estimates and objective measures among men with Peyronie’s disease. J Sex Med. 2009;6(3):862–5 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19284472.
Shah P, Kendall F, Khozin S, Goosen R, Hu J, Laramie J, et al. Artificial intelligence and machine learning in clinical development: a translational perspective. NPJ Digit Med. 2019;2:69 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31372505.
Ruotsalainen P, Blobel B. Digital pHealth - problems and solutions for ethics, trust and privacy. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2019;261:31–46 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31156088.
Lupton D. Digital health now and in the future: findings from a participatory design stakeholder workshop. Digit Heal. 3:2055207617740018 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29942616.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
Dr. Pastuszak
- Endo Pharmaceuticals—advisor, consultant, speaker
- Boston Scientific—advisor
- Antares Pharmaceuticals—advisor
- Bayer AG—speaker
Dr. Lipshultz
American Medical Systems (Speaker)
AbbVie (Consultant)
Lipocine (Consultant)
Aytu Bioscience (Consultant)
Endo Pharmaceuticals (Speaker/Consultant)
Dr. Spitz
Chironhealth.com customer (telemedical platform)
2nd.MD—provide telemedical second opinions
Foresight imaging/TIMS telesurgical—consultant
Revactin.com—prior spokesperson
Endopharmaceuticals—speaker, spokesperson
AbbVie—speaker
Dr. Michael L. Eisenberg
Sandstone—advisor
Ro—advisor
Dadi—advisor
Illumesense—advisor
Gilead—consultant
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Male Sexual Dysfunction and Disorders
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Balasubramanian, A., Yu, J., Rivera-Mirabal, J. et al. A Spotlight on Patient- and Physician-Driven Digital Health and Mobile Innovation in Male Reproductive Medicine. Curr Sex Health Rep 12, 261–265 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-020-00280-6
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-020-00280-6