Consensus on Use of the Term “App” Versus “Application” for Reporting of mHealth Research

The number of research studies published which focus on medical “applications” or “apps” continues to grow exponentially. Many academics use these terms interchangeably, however we believe that the discrepancy of terminology used may present a problem for future researchers to systematically identify and conduct appropriate literature searches. We believe it is now time for the mHealth research community to come to a universal consensus and reach a common standard on whether studies should refer to medical “apps” or “applications”. In this article we highlight a number of advantages that standardization of nomenclature will deliver. We also highlight a number of reasons why we believe that mHealth researchers should use the terminology: app [plural-apps]. We conclude by recommending that leading eHealth medical informatics publications such as Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) to implement a policy to utilize common nomenclature moving forward to facilitate improved reporting of studies investigating mobile medical app interventions. [J Med Internet Res 2014;16(7):e174]