Most health apps have ‘limited value’
pharmafile | November 15, 2013 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | Android, digital, healthcare apps, smartphone apple
In a challenge to pharma marketers everywhere, a new report has declared that the ‘vast majority’ of health-related apps aimed at consumers are of no real use whatsoever.
The IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics concludes that most apps focus on diet and exercise – rather than addressing the greatest areas of need: patients over 65 who have multiple chronic diseases.
The health information provider found that just 16,275 of the 43,000 ‘health-related’ apps you can download from the Apple iTunes app store are directly related to patient health and treatment.
After an assessment each of these, it decided that more than 90% of them had limited functionality, scoring less than 40 out of a possible 100 based on 25 screening factors.
While two-thirds can provide and display information, fewer than half can then give instructions and only 20% can capture data entered by the user.
Moreover, even though people over 65 are the main users of health resources, they do not tend to use smartphones – less than a fifth of US people in this age group have them, compared to 55% aged 45-54 – or download apps.
However, the report acknowledges that “high smartphone penetration among younger generations of caregivers who download apps could impact healthcare efficiency among patients with the highest unmet need”.
One of the report’s most striking findings is that most apps are virtually ignored anyway: over half of them have been downloaded fewer than 500 times – with only five apps accounting for 15% of all downloads in healthcare.
This means there is a mass of apps that patients and doctors need to negotiate to get anything out of them – and there is very little guidance available on how best to do that.
“Mobile health apps have the potential to drive a disruptive shift in patient engagement and healthcare delivery,” said Murray Aitken, executive director of the IMS Institute.
“Harnessing the power of apps has become a focal point of innovation, yet barriers remain to their broad and systematic use by providers and patients,” he went on.
“Development of clear evidence on the benefits of driving positive behavioural changes and improving health outcomes will be key to breaking through the barriers.”
The researchers suggest that apps’ role in healthcare needs to be recognised by all, but that security and privacy guidelines need to be established among providers, patients and app developers.
There also needs to be “a systematic evaluation of apps to inform their appropriate use” and apps must be effectively integrated into patient care if their use is to develop.
Most doctors are still wary of formally recommending apps, the report says, although perhaps this is less of a surprise given their relatively recent appearance on the health scene.
The rules of engagement for pharma marketers when it comes to apps are still evolving: the industry released the first apps for Android handsets only three years ago, before which they had almost all been for Apple’s iPhone.
In September the FDA declared that it would not regulate the majority of health-related apps – more than two years after producing draft rules on its role in this burgeoning sphere of medical technology.
Adam Hill
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