Adoption of mHealth in the US- how far have we come yet?

Adoption is an integral part of a technology's success. If users do not adopt it, it's as good as an unused service for an organization. The norm stands true in the cases of mHealth. We all love how healthcare apps make our day, letting us avoid lab tests or physician meetings. We also adore how messages are spread across mobiles and the way we can monitor our vitals while sitting at home. And who can ignore the importance of remote care? Things look pretty convenient with mHealth in the US.

But all of this is possible if we adapt to mHealth on a grand level. Some patients still love to have a doctor's hand-written prescription rather than a digital one, and some don't know how far mHealth solutions technology can be relied upon. And many others are still non-confident about giving their data to a handheld device.

Adoption of mobile health applications

But things get interesting when we look at the facts. The number of people using mHealth on iOS platforms escalated from 43 thousand in 2013 to near about 90,000 in 2015. And the number is increasing day by day. But adoption is not. The problem lies in the different services and capabilities offered by these apps. With a maximum of apps offering narrow functionality, they are restricted to just providing information. Others that offer multiple uses cannot do so in a fulfilling way. We all know that an app does not offer multi-purpose work and is focused on just a single service. Hence, mHealth apps face quite a bit of challenge in terms of adoption.

Lack of confidence without physician's advice

With millions of mobile healthcare solutions promising to help take care of your health, patients are getting confused more than they are being assured. With so many options, patients cannot rely on a single application. Also, they still seek providers' guidance before using an app that can monitor their health, which offers a contradiction in the process. A good way the situation is being looked into is by providers authorizing applications with their services. Many providers are offering their official apps so that patients can increase reliability and conviction. But since this takes a large amount of capital, many small-scale providers still have a long way to go.