Today, Tuesday, July 17, 2012 iHealthBeat is reporting that although the
number of mobile health applications has grown dramatically over the
past few years, there has not been a corresponding rise in the number of
people downloading health apps. Brian Dolan, editor and co-founder of
MobiHealthNews, said data show the number of consumer health apps in the
Apple Store has increased from 2,993 in February 2010 to 13,619 in
April 2012. He noted, "But a persistent trend is that the majority of
these apps are focused on tracking fitness or diet ... and far fewer are
focused on what most people would consider true health problems, like
chronic conditions or chronic condition management."
Recent data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project indicate
that about 88% of U.S. residents have a mobile phone and about 50% of
those are smartphones. However, only about 10% of smartphone users have
downloaded health-related apps, a figure that has remained steady since
2010. Susannah Fox, lead health researcher for the project, said, "We
are in a situation where we have the technology and we certainly have
the need -- just look at all of the statistics on the rise of obesity
and other unhealthy trends." She added, "But what we have not yet seen
is an uptick in the percentage of people who are adopting and using
these health apps." Lee Ritterband -- director of the behavioral health
and technology program at the University of Virginia -- noted that "We
know very clearly that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to the
range of health issues: People need different things and need to be
helped along and prompted given their particular needs" (Butler,
Washington Post, 7/16).
Current national demographic trends highlight the problems of a
one-size-fits-all approach to health and healthcare. First, the aging of
the US population is one of the most important demographic trends that
will affect the future healthcare system. The currently aging health
workforce also raises concerns that many health professionals will
retire about the same time that demand for their services is increasing
and when the healthcare system has little ability to respond quickly
through traditional provider training programs
Secondly, the changing racial and ethnic distribution of the population
also has substantial implications for the future healthcare system.
Disparities in access to care account for part of this difference, in
addition to other language, cultural and socio-environmental factors.
This has significant implication for providers. Between 2000 and 2020,
the percentage of total patient care hours physicians spend with
minority patients is projected to rise from approximately 31 percent to
40 percent.
So what’s the solution? Firstly you should always get health insurance. Given consumer health IT’s increasing role in
clinical care and patients’ self-care and self-management, one potential
solution lies in designing health IT that is socioculturally-informed.
To Health IT designers though, creating culturally informed consumer
health IT can seem daunting. Recently a Culturally-Informed Design
Framework has been proposed as a guide to socioculturally conceptualize
and personalize four key dimensions of health IT including 1) the
technology device/platform, 2) application functionality, 3) technology
content/messaging, 4) the user interface. Informing design choices by a
deep understanding of the user’s clinical needs and sociocultural
factors may be the only way for emerging health IT tools to help the US
healthcare system overcome the health challenges that lay before us.
Read more: http://www.springerlink.com/content/2190-7188
Read
more:http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2012/7/17/number-of-health-apps-rising-but-download-rates-remain-low.aspx#ixzz20vPaCz9D
