Is A Healthcare App Great If Nobody Uses It? Maybe It’s Time For Plan B

The following is a guest article by Greg Kefer, CMO at Lifelink Systems.

It is hard to dispute that the most efficient way to reach and engage consumers digitally is through the smartphone. Today, 86% of US consumers carry those small, advanced, connected devices with them everywhere they go and use them for everything. It’s no wonder that businesses from every sector continue to pour resources into the development and maintenance of mobile apps.

Healthcare organizations of all sorts are part of this nearly universal trend. They continue to invest heavily in digital patient engagement, resulting in a steady flow of new apps and better functionality. Many of these mobile solutions are quite powerful. In many cases, there’s little a patient can’t do when it comes to navigating their healthcare needs on a smartphone. Done.  Mission accomplished, right?

Well, not exactly.

Mobile apps may be fantastic pieces of software, but many people struggle with the fundamental app-related issues of accessibility and usability. For a patient to use a shiny new mobile app, they first must download the app to their smartphone and then set up a secure account to log in. To be HIPAA compliant, many apps come with additional user-authentication requirements for login. Once a patient has jumped through the various hoops to gain access to the app, they still need to figure out how to use it – easier said than done for most people.

For a millennial living in San Francisco, the app onboarding process might simply exercise in the form of muscle memory that has been called upon countless times. But for most people, especially those that use healthcare more frequently, the pathway to mobile digital engagement is vexing, if not impossible.

Access and usability “friction” presents an opposing force that many are unwilling to overcome and is the enemy of wide scale digital consumer engagement. Every industry deals with it. However, healthcare also faces a challenging blend of complexity, regulations, and data privacy when it comes to patient-facing technology. This is one reason the industry is so far behind others when it comes to wide-scale digital engagement.

There’s also no single app for all healthcare needs. A person may be able to use the Amazon app to manage every step of the purchase and fulfillment process. A patient with a chronic condition might require a portfolio of different apps from the various entities in their care network, each coming with its own unique set of access hurdles.

It’s no wonder that mobile app patient engagement rates have always hovered in the 5 –10% range.  In a recent consumer poll, only 7% of adults said they regularly engage with their healthcare providers on mobile apps, which is pretty shocking considering the industry has been investing heavily in mobile apps for well over a decade.

Just because you build it does not mean they will come.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a virtual moment for the healthcare industry. The growth in virtual care during the pandemic is well documented. Mobile apps (and other virtual services) were pressed into service, often positioned as the only pathway to get care. What years of marketing couldn’t accomplish was handled by a cruel aspect of mother nature.

As the pandemic gradually fades, there are signs that patients are reverting to their older, established ways. There are multiple reports that show double-digit declines in virtual care numbers.

So, let’s summarize where things sit today:

  • Smartphones are ubiquitous, most consumers own and depend on them in all aspects of daily life
  • Healthcare mobile apps are powerful but riddled with friction points, so most don’t use them
  • Mobile app engagement rates remain unacceptably low
  • The COVID pandemic created urgency and opportunity for digital engagement, but the status quo strategy continues – pushing mobile apps that patients don’t want to use

Now what?

First of all, consumers are not going to ditch their mobile devices. With each new release, the power increases and the price drops. The issue for innovators lies in the software.

There are hundreds of millions of mobile apps available for download and most of them are useless or unused. Of the 300,000+ mobile healthcare apps, do we see a clear winner? The answer is “no.”

Here’s the good news. Mobile technology is moving beyond “the app” and onto the next phase of innovation. Language is a key innovation, the next generation user interface that will redefine interactions between humans and machines. Siri and Alexa are prominent examples.

There’s a new technology category emerging, frequently referred to as Conversational AI. Rather than requiring users to download, set up accounts, and navigate through a dizzying array of menus and buttons, the devices simply talk to users. If a person asks Siri to play Riders on the Storm by The Doors, it works. Retail transactions are going conversational as well. “Alexa, add a 3 pack of Ivory soap to my shopping cart” is no longer science fiction.

For processes related to healthcare, things get more complicated. Playing a song is cool, but also technologically easy. Checking in for a visit at a health clinic, completing intake paperwork and navigating to the right facility adds countless levels of complexity, but also is increasingly possible.

A patient can use their smartphone’s embedded functionality to interact with doctors, pharmacists, drug manufacturers, and insurance providers. Smart, interactive messaging can navigate a range of workflows, from simple things like directions, to long term drug adherence regimens. There are no apps to download, no passwords to remember. The only prerequisite is being able to spell, in any language.

Healthcare is on the path to turning smartphones into digital health assistants that can handle a diverse range of time-consuming tasks. Patients win because they are relieved of the paperwork and confusion that usually comes with healthcare. The industry wins by having an unlimited number of digital workers that can take on all the redundant, simple tasks that were once handled by their employees.

   

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