Health Secretary Andrew Lansley MP yesterday issued a call for health professionals and mobile phone ‘app’ designers to suggest new software which could help people improve their health. Apps could deliver improved monitoring of health or help nudge or support people towards healthy lifestyles.
If I had a pound for every time in the past two years someone had suggested to me that there should be a health app for X, well, I’d be at least £20 better off. But you get my point. There are thousands of ideas out there already, many of which are already on the market. This time last year there were over 250,000 health apps on the itunes store alone. (1)
The Times (2) reports that one of the apps likely to be considered would be a FluPhone, which would track epidemics by asking patients to record their symptoms. This might be a useful piece of software, but in the UK we have near real time reporting of flu immunisation anyway. And on a global level, services such as Google flu (3) have been monitoring flu levels for years. Government is often far slower than the market is.
Lansley claims that his desire is to “give people better access to information that will put them in control of their health and help make informed choices about their healthcare” (4). There is a strong case for Government to promote the best apps out there and doing so could help improve usage. But there is a weaker case for Government to be attempting to come up with ideas for new apps, particularly as the DH have confirmed that they have no money to develop them “We will not be announcing any funding for the development of the best health apps”, said a spokesperson.(5)
Fundamentally however, Lansley is missing the point. Whilst some apps could be better promoted, there is no shortage of ideas.
There are however lots of barriers in the way of the health service increasing its usage of smartphone apps. Digital Exclusion is one of them. If older people, the main users of health services, continue to be less likely than other ages to go online (through a computer or a smartphone) then the benefits of health apps may not reach their potential.
Another major challenge is that we still have far too limited a private purchase culture for health products. Most smartphone apps are purchased by individuals. Yet as ILC-UK research last year showed, we still know too little about how to reach and sell to the older consumer. (6)
But one of the biggest barriers to usage by the health services is the procurement model. ILC-UK did some work last year for a software company who wanted to sell in to the NHS. Their software targeted people with a specific condition and there were perhaps 10,000 potential recipients. But when they explored the market and discovered the cost and complexity of selling into the NHS, they found that they simply couldn’t get their product to market.
So, yes, Mr Lansley should be promoting the best health apps out there. But he must also address the other barriers to smartphone usage for health including digital exclusion, the need for more understanding of how to reach the older consumer, and the sometimes complicated and expensive process for selling into the NHS.
David Sinclair
(This post was also published at www.ilcuk.org.uk)
1) http://culturalsweat.com/2010/08/how-many-health-fitness-apps-are-in-the-itunes-store/
2) NHS should be more switched on about apps, says Lansley. The Times, 22 August 2011 (£)
3) http://www.google.org/flutrends/
4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/government-computing-network/2011/aug/22/andrew-lansley-healthcare-apps-dh
5) http://www.guardian.co.uk/government-computing-network/2011/aug/22/andrew-lansley-healthcare-apps-dh
6) Sinclair (2010) The Golden Economy – The Consumer Marketplace in an Ageing Society http://www.ilcuk.org.uk/record.jsp?type=publication&ID=80
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