Four “E”s to speed adoption of mHealth and promote cardiovascular behavioral medicine.

Mobile health, also referred to as mHealth, is defined by the World Health Organization as the delivery of medical practice supported by mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, virtual assistants, and other wireless devices. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses confirm the effectiveness of mHealth tools at improving patient adherence to various self-care activities with downstream beneficial effects on blood pressure control and reduced health services utilization. Yet the clinical application of mHealth to cardiovascular behavioral medicine has been limited. Given high rates of smartphone ownership in the U.S., it is now possible, at least theoretically, to utilize mHealth on both a population-wide and highly personalized basis to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor response to therapy for a broad variety of cardiovascular behavioral medicine conditions. In keeping with the theme of this special issue of HealthPsychology, we highlight the "4E" barriers of evidence, eminence, electronic health record, and economics that must be addressed to speed adoption of mHealth to promote cardiovascular behavioral medicine and improve health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).