Choosing Effective, Sticky Health Apps

In arecent blog post, I talked about the new book that Paul Cerrato and I just completed, The Transformative Power of Mobile Medicine. In that post, we shared the Preface to the book in the hope that it might pique readers ’ interest in mobile health. What follows is an excerpt from Chapter 3, “Exploring the Strengths and Weaknesses of Mobile Health Apps.” Choosing Effective, Sticky Health AppsEven healthcare providers who see the need for innovative mobile apps still face numerous obstacles. Given the human tendency to seek the path of least resistance, identifying the most effective, “stickiest” mobile apps becomes a real challenge. InRealizing the Promise of Precision Medicine, we discussed the need to individualize medical care and the importance of improving patient engagement. When choosing mobile health apps to meet patients ’ needs, it is critical to keep both goals in mind. Each patient is at a different stage in their journey, with some lacking basic knowledge about their disorder and others almost as well informed as their providers. With that in mind, the prescription of health apps should be geared to an individ ual’s level of patient engagement. Mobile apps can be divided into several broad categories based on the level of engagement that each patient has reached. Patients will likely lose interest in a health app if it is not consistent with their level of engagement. [1] Among the categories that can meet patients ’ needs ar...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs