This month was published by Research2guidance the 5th annual study on mHealth app publishing. The results showed that the mHealth app publishers target mostly the chronically ill patients. Probably, chronic disease are the main target because they represent 86% of the total healthcare spending and there’s a huge potential to use mHealth apps to reduce costs in this segment of patients, in fact a recent review published this year on the Journal of Medical Internet Research, suggested that there’s a potential for the mHealth tools to improve adherence in chronic disease management.
The same review as showed that Short Message Service (SMS) was the most frequent feature in their analysis, probably because in this study from research2guidence they reported that the reminders (can be done by SMS) are the most easily implemented and most effective in changing patient behavior.
In 5 years, the mHealth app publishers had said that the potential to reduce costs for hospital readmissions and duration of stay will have the biggest impact in the healthcare costs.
It is a good analysis to overview the mHealth market trends.
Source:
- mHealth App Developer Economics 2015 – The current status and trends of mHealth app market, Research2guidance (2015), available in http://www.research2guidance.com
- Gerteis J, Izrael D, Deitz D, LeRoy L, Ricciardi R, Miller T, Basu J. Multiple Chronic Conditions Chartbook. AHRQ Publications No, Q14-0038. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2014. Accessed November 27, 2015.
- Hamine S, Gerth-Guyette E, Faulx D, Green BB, Ginsburg AS. Impact of mHealth Chronic Disease Management on Treatment Adherence and Patient Outcomes: A Systematic Review; J Med Internet Res 2015;17(2):e52; available in http://www.jmir.org/2015/2/e52