According to a recent study from Manhattan Research, 95 million U.S. adults use mobile phones to acquire health information or to use health care tools. This number has jumped 27 percent in the last year. Based on these numbers, it’s easy to assume mobile technology has become an essential health care tool.
Research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project tells a different story. Approximately 69 percent of Americans track some kind of health indicator such as diet, weight or exercise. However, of those people, 21 percent use technology and only seven percent use mobile apps. Taken together, these studies seem to indicate Americans may research medical conditions and questions using their mobile phones, but don’t actually take advantage of mobile health apps to track vital information.
Some experts have decided mobile technology is overrated, assuming that low mobile app adoption rates indicate that patients aren’t interested in mobile. However, today’s most visionary health care executives (click here) know mobile health app adoption is just getting started. In hospitals and health groups, mobile apps could become vital tools for managing patient health, delivering positive patient outcomes and saving hospitals money. The key to convincing patients will be the development of mobile health apps that actually change patient behavior.
The Problem With Today’s Mobile Health Apps
Mobile application developers have issued between 17,000 and 40,000 health, fitness and medical apps. However, a recent Ohio State study found an estimated two-thirds of these apps either are not based on sound science or demonstrate little input from a medical professional.
Additionally, the FDA has only recently issued guidance on how it plans to regulate the use of mobile devices in health care. The agency plans to regulate applications that serve as accessories to a regulated medical device and apps that transform a mobile device into a regulated medical device. In other words, if the app uploads imaging studies to help a doctor make a diagnosis or if the app transforms a smartphone into a heart monitor to track cardiac arrhythmia, then the FDA will regulate those apps.
According to an article in American Medical News, most early app adopters were attracted by the novelty of using smartphone apps. Unfortunately, even the most faithful patient loses interest in writing down data if the action doesn’t elicit meaningful behavior change. Researchers have found 26 percent of people who download mobile health apps use them only once.
Persuasive Technology
Psychologist B.J. Fogg of Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab argues mobile health apps will never take off until they merge content with proven behavior-modification techniques. Fogg expresses his behavior change model in the form of an equation:
Behavior change = motivation + ability + triggers for desired changes.
According to Fogg, people who want to make significant behavior changes must have the right mix of motivation and ability. For example, someone with low motivation to make a behavior change coupled with low ability to navigate technology is unlikely to use mobile health apps consistently. Fogg classifies motivations into three major types:
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Pleasure/pain. The anticipation of pleasure or the fear of pain motivates “in the moment” behavior.
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Hope/fear. This motivation anticipates an outcome either positively or negatively.
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Social acceptance/rejection. People want to be accepted into their social circles, and they fear being ostracized.
While app developers can’t change a patient’s motivation, they can help patients to feel a greater sense of ability by making their apps easy to use. Ability requires the patient to have adequate resources of time, money, physical energy, mental energy and a desire for social conformity. They should also have the ability to incorporate a behavior change as part of their routine. Finally, triggers should be noticeable, associated with the desired behavior and initiated at a time of maximum motivation and ability.
Apps Must Prove Themselves
Patients with chronic conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease or arthritis often feel they’ve “tried everything” in the quest to get better. New content isn’t going to motivate them to make positive changes. Before patients adopt mobile health apps in a widespread way, apps will have to start proving they can actually change behaviors.