As the mobile app market booms, those seeking a more health-conscious life have a seemingly endless selection of tools that claim to make them healthier: Apps track diets, count calories and even connect people with others trying to stay active and eat better.
Brian Dolan of MobiHealth reports there are roughly 8,000 "health" apps available for download in the iTunes library alone. The breakdown looks something like this: 60 percent relate to calorie counting, 20 percent to cardio fitness, 9 percent to strength training and 7 percent to improving sleep.
So, with so many resources literally at our fingertips, are our behaviors being changed for the better? Are mobile health apps effectively improving our way of life?
Not really, according to mobile health app analyst Pamela Culver, who authored a recent research report stating that while 70 percent of people globally want access to at least one medical health app, 26 percent of people who've downloaded them only use them once, and only two-thirds of people who have the apps use them as intended. (This is according to a Pew Internet Research Study.)
Quality is an issue
With the gates wide open for mobile health app development, it's easy to see how some, if not most of the apps being downloaded, aren't the most useful of tools. In many cases, these tools are not designed or developed by health experts. To compound this issue, many of health apps are simply regurgitations of existing apps where the same, poor functionality and information is repeated with a more appealing interface.
And while only a few medical apps have been approved by the FDA (including AirStrip and Mobile Medical Imaging) a March 10 FDA town hall revealed the FDA will require regulatory review and software validation. Once in place, this should give consumers more useful, powerful tools and help amplify engagement.
Medical app users are disengaged
Another part of the issue has to do with disengagement. In 2010, Susana Fox from the Pew Research Center published findings that said the more chronic diseases a person struggles with, the less likely he is to seek health information online. This means the very people who need to effectively manage chronic conditions aren't accessing the data or tools that can help them.
Similarly, a 2010 Edelman Health Engagement study, which showed who interacted with online health information, uncovered that only 20 percent of people "health engage" -- an industry term describing people who act on data provided to them through these health apps. (For example, you read that you should be running 10 more minutes today and then you follow suit.)
It's important to note that this study was conducted in 12 countries, which clearly shows that health disengagement is global.
In a March 12 panel on mobile health apps at SXSW Interactive, Margaret Morris, a senior researcher with Intel Corp., said, "One of the landmines with developing and promoting health software is an assumption that people set health goals and follow them in a steadfast manner. But people have a lot of variation in motivation and we need to address the social and emotion factors that affect motivational variation."
This is true with anything being designed in app form. If the app isn't designed to be flexible for these variations in motivations, as well as other factors like the user's level of technical ability, daily routines and time they can dedicate to improving their health, then it's not designed well and it can be expected to score low with retention and engagement.
Changing human behavior
Changing behavior with a mobile health app can be challenging. Another pitfall around designing useful apps is "sloppy thinking around behavior change."
Says BJ Fogg, a Stanford researcher who founded the Persuasive Technology Lab: "There's lots of different types behavior change [and] it's very difficult to get people to do things one time like a health risk assessment vs. stopping like quitting smoking vs. creating a daily habit so we need clearer thinking around behavior change."
One tactic to help with launching this change is focusing on baby steps. When health app developers focus on designing small, initial steps, they can "trigger the right sequence of baby steps," claims Fogg. These apps may be more successful with users because they don't set unrealistic goals right out of the gates, keeping users engaged with them longer.
Another approach is to focus on utilizing better health data within the app. Today, not many tools have the networking capability to tie in with, say, a user's health chart from their physician's office. But the future of successful mobile health apps may hinge on the ability to display custom activities based on granular, personalized data right from a doctor's notes.
Brian Dolan of MobiHealth reports there are roughly 8,000 "health" apps available for download in the iTunes library alone. The breakdown looks something like this: 60 percent relate to calorie counting, 20 percent to cardio fitness, 9 percent to strength training and 7 percent to improving sleep.
So, with so many resources literally at our fingertips, are our behaviors being changed for the better? Are mobile health apps effectively improving our way of life?
Not really, according to mobile health app analyst Pamela Culver, who authored a recent research report stating that while 70 percent of people globally want access to at least one medical health app, 26 percent of people who've downloaded them only use them once, and only two-thirds of people who have the apps use them as intended. (This is according to a Pew Internet Research Study.)
Quality is an issue
With the gates wide open for mobile health app development, it's easy to see how some, if not most of the apps being downloaded, aren't the most useful of tools. In many cases, these tools are not designed or developed by health experts. To compound this issue, many of health apps are simply regurgitations of existing apps where the same, poor functionality and information is repeated with a more appealing interface.
And while only a few medical apps have been approved by the FDA (including AirStrip and Mobile Medical Imaging) a March 10 FDA town hall revealed the FDA will require regulatory review and software validation. Once in place, this should give consumers more useful, powerful tools and help amplify engagement.
Medical app users are disengaged
Another part of the issue has to do with disengagement. In 2010, Susana Fox from the Pew Research Center published findings that said the more chronic diseases a person struggles with, the less likely he is to seek health information online. This means the very people who need to effectively manage chronic conditions aren't accessing the data or tools that can help them.
Similarly, a 2010 Edelman Health Engagement study, which showed who interacted with online health information, uncovered that only 20 percent of people "health engage" -- an industry term describing people who act on data provided to them through these health apps. (For example, you read that you should be running 10 more minutes today and then you follow suit.)
It's important to note that this study was conducted in 12 countries, which clearly shows that health disengagement is global.
In a March 12 panel on mobile health apps at SXSW Interactive, Margaret Morris, a senior researcher with Intel Corp., said, "One of the landmines with developing and promoting health software is an assumption that people set health goals and follow them in a steadfast manner. But people have a lot of variation in motivation and we need to address the social and emotion factors that affect motivational variation."
This is true with anything being designed in app form. If the app isn't designed to be flexible for these variations in motivations, as well as other factors like the user's level of technical ability, daily routines and time they can dedicate to improving their health, then it's not designed well and it can be expected to score low with retention and engagement.
Changing human behavior
Changing behavior with a mobile health app can be challenging. Another pitfall around designing useful apps is "sloppy thinking around behavior change."
Says BJ Fogg, a Stanford researcher who founded the Persuasive Technology Lab: "There's lots of different types behavior change [and] it's very difficult to get people to do things one time like a health risk assessment vs. stopping like quitting smoking vs. creating a daily habit so we need clearer thinking around behavior change."
One tactic to help with launching this change is focusing on baby steps. When health app developers focus on designing small, initial steps, they can "trigger the right sequence of baby steps," claims Fogg. These apps may be more successful with users because they don't set unrealistic goals right out of the gates, keeping users engaged with them longer.
Another approach is to focus on utilizing better health data within the app. Today, not many tools have the networking capability to tie in with, say, a user's health chart from their physician's office. But the future of successful mobile health apps may hinge on the ability to display custom activities based on granular, personalized data right from a doctor's notes.
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