Conceptualization and Realizationof a Generic Mobile App Framework to support Interventional and Sensor-driven as well as Mobile Crowdsensing based Clinical studies

Creating medical questionnaires, scientific studies and carry them to execution is verylabor- and cost intensive. New trends like the digitization of business processes andcrowd-sensed data collection support professionals and scientists in their research and allow up-scaling of studies to reach more patients and gain more precise scientific findings. The use of mobile apps to support scientific studies allows the integration ofvital sensors that improve the quality of scientific studies. One issue remains though, the creation of a mobile app for a study may still be very cost and time consuming.The QuestionSys framework is a framework developed in the context of the research by the Institute of Databases and Information Systems of Ulm University, that allows researchers as well as clinicians to develop their own mobile apps and allows them to collect mobile data without programming skills. This project aims to assist scientist aswell as professionals in medical domains to improve patient healthcare and medical research. Therefore in the context of this thesis, a mobile framework is created that implements a process engine that can read and execute generic questionnaires created by the QuestionSys Configurator. The main goal is to reduce the costs, time effort and thequalification barrier to design and create new scientific studies. For the framework, the support for internal as well as external bluetooth sensors is integrated and custom ques-tionnaire elements of the QuestionSys Configurator are used to configure the sensors.The framework is developed to easily allow extending functionality for new sensors andallow adding custom functionality that may be needed in the context of new studies.To prove the practicability, a case study ""Mindful Walking"" is implemented using thedeveloped framework. The study is implemented in the form of a multi-session study.It supports sensor logging for a bluetooth heart rate sensor, a GPS speed sensor anda GPS distance sensor and allows the export of all sensor logs. In addition, a demoapplication is developed to prepare the framework for integration of a future RESTful Apithat may load studies and upload study results. The application is designed to cache media files and to execute studies offline. This allows to reach parts of the world with limited access to the Internet