- Big problem #1–health app adoption and retention. They have low adoption/high dropout rates–26% being used only once and 74% being discontinued by the tenth use*.
- Big problem #2–low, slow rate of smartphone adoption by those 45+ in the US**. Here we have higher hardware and plan costs running into end user usage patterns and ultimately, ‘cost-benefit’. In 2011 it was a surprising 10% of each OS. This will resolve over time with especially younger boomers, the gradual disappearance of BlackBerry, and with tablets (easier to see and Wi-Fiable), but right now you have to conclude that those who can most use the apps don’t have the phones, and if they do, lose interest in using the apps over time.
- The PwC/EIU study is based on 1,027 patients, 433 doctors and 345 healthcare execs–spread over 10 countries. Thus the N is low for each country. Nonetheless the doctors are not madly in love with patient use of apps: only 27% of physicians encouraged patients to use them and 13% discouraged use. This is made to sound negative, but with 12,000 apps out there, how can the most mHealth tuned-in doc know whether the patient’s app is a good one? (Here is a role for a ‘trusted provider’ to vet medical apps, a role which can’t be given to the iTunes or Android Stores.)
But if you treat it as a trend, or directional…it is reasonably good news that consumers are trying to find their own way to access and better their healthcare using tools at hand. It might help if Big Problems #1 and #2 weren’t inconvenient impediments to it all. FoxBusiness article, PwC/EIU ‘Emerging mHealth: Paths for Growth’ (Slideshare)
*Consumer Health Information Corporation online survey, N=395, April 2011. Ref. TA Soapbox, ‘mHealth a Field of Dreams?’ 13 Mar 2012.
** MIT AgeLab, TA 22 April 2011