IMS Health Study: More than 165,000 mHealth apps available

IMS Health chart

There are now more than 165,000 mHealth apps available to consumers, according to a new report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. While most of these apps focus on overall wellness, healthcare systems and professionals are expressing greater interest in broader app use as barriers to mainstream adoption of mHealth are removed, especially in the area of chronic disease management.

The study found that one in ten apps now has the capability to connect to a device or sensor, providing biofeedback and physiological function data from the patient while greatly extending the accuracy and convenience of data collection. Nearly a quarter of all apps are now focused on disease and treatment management, while two-thirds target fitness and wellness. However, 40 percent have fewer than 5,000 downloads.

“While much progress has been made over the past two years, mHealth apps are still far from being a fully integrated component of healthcare delivery,” said Murray Aitken, executive director of the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. “Healthcare providers are actively addressing the remaining barriers. These include developing and adopting trusted platforms for ongoing apps curation and evaluation, creating practical reimbursement models and ensuring true interoperability within and across healthcare systems.”

Just 12% of mHealth apps account for more than 90% of all downloads, with nearly half of all downloads generated by just 36 apps.The report’s key findings are as follow:

App connectivity is a major focus for developers
mHealth apps with the capability to connect to social networks increased from 26 to 34 percent, underscoring the importance of social networking in consumer engagement.

Overwhelming choice
Just 12 percent of mHealth apps account for more than 90 percent of all downloads, with nearly half of all downloads generated by just 36 apps. For prescribed fitness apps, the retention rate is 30 percent higher.

Building evidence to support the value of mHealth apps…
…such as improving patient outcomes or lowering healthcare costs. Momentum is building for observational studies and randomized clinical trials that will yield evidence to support the value of apps, specifically in the areas of type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and mental health. The number of clinical trials using mobile apps has more than doubled in the past two years, rising from 135 to 300. And of the large mHealth app clinical trials that recruit patients, 53 percent are directed at the senior population.

Barriers to full adoption of mHealth apps remain
Most healthcare providers are confident that mHealth can improve overall outcomes, reduce the cost of healthcare and encourage patients to take a more active role in improving their health. Remaining barriers include limited connectivity and integration into workflow systems; a slow paradigm shift in reimbursement processes and delivery of care; data confidentiality, privacy, security and regulatory uncertainties; lack of scientific evidence to measure the efficacy of apps; and the inability to reach the most vulnerable cohorts of patients — mainly the elderly or non-English speaking.

The full report is available at TheIMSinstitute.org.