Report offers path to drive use of health apps

A report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics explores the role of apps in healthcare and how the industry can move the use of apps from novelty to mainstream.

The FDA’s recent release of final guidance “helps remove one of the perceived barriers to greater use,” said Murray Aitken, executive director of IMS Health. The organization took stock of the available apps to better understand ongoing barriers to widespread use.

They found 43,689 apps in the iTunes store in the health and fitness and medical categories. About 20,000 were eliminated when they discarded those apps more related to fashion and beauty. Another 7,000 focused on medical professionals, leaving some 16,000 apps that are consumer- or patient-oriented, healthcare focused and available for download. IMS Health assessed their functionality, formats of information, whether they capture user-entered data, whether they offer guidance and more.

The report includes the following five key findings:

1. A lot of apps are classified as medical or for health and fitness, but “most have very limited functionality. We found about 10,800 that provided some sort of information but less than half also provided some level of instruction.” Less than 20 percent also had the capability of capturing user-entered data.
2. The volume of downloading and use of apps is still very limited. “We found that more than half of apps have been downloaded fewer than 500 times and five apps accounted for 15 percent of total downloads,” Aitken said. They also found that it’s very difficult for consumers to navigate their way through these app categories and there is no objective assessment of value or utility. “That’s one reason we’re seeing relatively few downloads.”
3. There are relatively few apps designed to address the areas of greatest need in healthcare. Those with multiple chronic illnesses use about 80 percent of healthcare resources but have the lowest penetration of smartphones and download the fewest apps. “Overall, we see a lack of convergence between areas of healthcare that consume the greatest costs and have the biggest impact on outcomes,” he said.
4. Physicians are wary of recommending apps. “They have voiced concern that there’s a lack of evidence of clinical benefit and very little in the way of randomized trials to isolate the impact of app use,” Aitken said. That really prevents physicians from more enthusiastically recommending apps to their patients. Guidelines from professional associations and provider organizations would help. He also called for “some sort of formulary that would provide objective assessment” and payers and employer wellness programs to “more fully embrace apps as a part of the provision of healthcare to their members.”
5. Four key areas need to be addressed to move apps from novelty to mainstream: Recognition by payers and providers of the role apps can play in healthcare; privacy and security guidelines; systematic evaluation of apps to inform their appropriate use; and the effective integration of apps with other aspects of patient care.

“There is a great deal of excitement about the potential of apps in healthcare but it’s still early days,” Aitken said.