Systematic Search and Evaluation of mobile Apps for Wound Care Available in French-Language in Canada.
Julie Gagnon, Julie Chartrand, Sebastian Probst and 6 others
PMID 39962802WHAT IT FOUND
Only five French-language wound-care apps were available to Canadian providers, all from France.
Their quality was acceptable to good, but no single app covers assessment, prevention, and care planning.
Key findings
01Five apps were included in the review, and all were from France.
02The included apps scored above 3.0 in all quality categories, with total averages from 3.52 to 4.10 and an overall average of 3.84 ± 0.22.
03The apps covered four types: wound dressing directory (n = 3), best practices reminders (n = 2), photography management and digital wound tracking (n = 1), and Total Body Surface Area calculator (n = 1).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only five apps were included after 1,550 apps were retrieved, so the result is a narrow snapshot of French-language wound-care apps for Canadian providers. All included apps were from France, so dressings, medicines, terminology, and electronic record compatibility may not match Canadian practice. The search covered only Canadian App Store and Google Play and excluded non-French apps and other platforms, so other relevant apps may have been missed. uMARS rated app quality features, not clinical effectiveness or patient outcomes, and the paper says evidence on app impact remains limited. Three wound-care nurses did the ratings, and uMARS gives equal weight to engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and information, which may not fit apps with different purposes. App availability and versions change quickly, so findings may represent only March 2024.
Declared interests
Funding came from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé, and the University of Ottawa. The paper states the funders had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, or publication decision.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the quality scores as proof that these apps improve wound care or patient outcomes. The paper assessed app features and nurse-rated quality, not clinical effectiveness, and it notes that evidence on app impact remains limited.