Mobile health in China: current status and future development.

Mobile health applications offer unique opportunities for monitoring patient progress, providing education materials to patients and family members, receiving personalized prompts and support, collecting ecologically valid data, and using self-management interventions when and where they are needed. Mobile health application services to mental illness have evidenced success in Western countries. However, they are still in the initial stage of development in China. The purpose of this paper is to identify needs for mobile health in China, present major mobile health products and technology in China, introduce mobile and digital psychiatric services, and discuss ethical issues and challenges in mobile health development in a country with the largest population in the world.