Based on an exhaustive search of Apple’s AppStore and the Google Play store in September 2013, MobiHealthNews found 205 apps that were “hospital-branded” and intended for use by consumers or patients. By that we mean simply that the hospital has put its name on these apps. For this special MobiHealthNews In-Depth we are publicly sharing for the first time the topline findings from our report. If you'd like to learn more about the history of mobile initiatives at US hospitals or would like access to the entire list of 205 hospital-branded apps for patients -- head over to our research store to get your copy today.
This week MobiHealthNews also did a quick search for new hospital-branded apps for patients that have launched since our report was published six months ago. We found 16 new apps and have included a roundup of those apps below. In the immediate section below are MobiHealthNews’ topline findings and metrics based on our analysis of the 205 hospital-branded patient apps we found as of last September.
17 percent from children’s hospitals: Of the 205 hospital-branded smartphone apps that MobiHealthNews found in the Apple AppStore and Google Play store, 34 were from children’s hospitals. Smartphones, tablets, and most new consumer technology in general is often first adopted by younger generations, which may be one reason for the significant cohort of children’s hospitals with branded apps. Another might be that parents of sick children are typically thought to be very engaged patient advocates and eager to adopt tools like these. Children’s hospitals are also typically more likely to experiment with patient engagement initiatives since their patients are younger and thought to be in need of extra help in understanding their medical condition and procedures. All of these reasons and more help explain why 17 percent of hospital branded apps come from children’s hospitals.
30 percent include ER appointment booking: While the pitch for checking in on wait times at the emergency room has long been a mainstay of healthcare apps, appointment booking is relatively new. About 30 percent of hospital-branded apps allow users to schedule an ER visit or book an appointment with a provider. The vast majority, however, are ER schedulers. InQuicker is one such company that provides a scheduling platform that targets hospitals. The company includes a customized hospital-branded app as part of its higher end app development packages. MobiHealthNews found that 61 out of 205 hospital-branded apps offer some kind of appointment booking.
1 percent are paid apps: Almost every hospital-branded app is free to download and use. MobiHealthNews only found three hospital-branded apps that cost money to download, and they were wellness tracking tools from the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic that help users manage stress and anxiety or learn how to meditate. It is fair to say that no hospital charges money for its flagship patient engagement app – neither Mayo Clinic nor Cleveland Clinic charge patients to download their Patient or Today apps, respectively.
3 percent include fitness trackers or fitness-related features: MobiHealthNews was surprised to find that seven hospital-branded apps include some kind of fitness-related component. Yes, despite the thousands of fitness-focused smartphone apps available in app stores today, hospitals are developing them, too. The most creatively named hospital-branded fitness app comes from the Detroit Medical Center (DMC), which offers Run with DMC, a running tracker app that had to be named with a tip of the cap to ‘80s hip hop group Run-D.M.C. Still, very few of the hospital apps MobiHealthNews found focused on fitness. Only 3 percent of hospital-branded apps today have a fitness feature.
61 percent are available for both Android and iOS: Based on the way most healthcare, fitness, and medical apps launch these days, it has long seemed apparent that most developers launch through Apple’s AppStore, and might create an Android app within a few weeks or months, if ever. MobiHealthNews’ research into hospital apps has found that while there are two hospital-branded Android apps that you can’t get in Apple’s AppStore, there are 50 iOS apps from hospitals that don’t have an Android version. The two Android-only apps come from Duncan Regional Hospital and Physicians Regional Healthcare. The majority, 153 hospital apps, or about 61 percent of them, are available for both iPhone and Android users.
3 percent boast some kind of EHR access: Perhaps the most important feature that a patient-facing, hospital branded smartphone app might have is the ability to access information in that patient’s electronic health record. While many more apps offer health tracking features for things like medications, allergies, or even when the user’s next appointment is – this self-entered data is different from EHR access. Very few hospital branded smartphone apps advertise this ability, which is the core offering of many patient-facing apps from EHR providers, like Epic’s MyChart app. Only 6 hospital-branded apps, or 3 percent of the 205 apps offered by US hospitals, promise patients some kind of access to their health records.
70 percent have a facility locator: The most popular feature that a hospital-branded app can have is directions to the facilities. Some apps advertise a GPS-enabled facility locator, but most any address displayed in an iPhone app can be clicked on to open up the phone’s preloaded GPS-enabled directions app. Some 70 percent of hospital- branded apps advertise a facility locator feature.
62 percent include a provider directory: The second most popular feature that hospital-branded apps in the US advertise is a provider directory or “find a physician” feature. About 62 percent of the 205 apps MobiHealthNews analyzed included this feature. More sophisticated versions of this feature claimed to organize providers by specialty or even by the condition or diseases they treat. Others build on this feature by allowing users to save information about their chosen providers from the directory to keep handy in the personalized, tracking section of the app.
40 percent offer some kind of health tracker: This catchall group includes any tracking mechanism for health-related issues, excluding fitness tracking. Some apps advertise trackers for medications, allergies, symptoms, chronic condition management, pregnancy, fertility, and newborns – just to name a few. This group also contains many of the features typically thought of as a part of an untethered PHR, which is different from a tethered PHR, which would fall under the EHR access feature in this report. Some 83 hospital-branded apps offer some kind of health tracker or trackers, which makes for 40 percent of the 205 total apps.
3 percent have medication reminders: A distinct feature from simple medication logging – or a list of current or past medications – is the medication reminder. Only 6 hospital-branded apps, or 3 percent of the total, offer some kind of medication reminder feature.
Less than 1 percent have Rx refill: Surprisingly, only 2 hospital-branded apps advertise a prescription refill feature that enables users to place an order right from their mobile devices. Retail pharmacies have had particular success offering Rx refill apps to their customers and Walgreens even began offering an API to their Rx refill feature so that developers can embed it into their apps. So far, apparently, no hospital has taken Walgreens up on that offer. Just 1 percent of hospital apps for patients offer Rx refill today.
2 percent enable some kind of messaging feature: An important requirement of Meaningful Use in the future is secure messaging between providers and patients. Four hospital-branded apps, or 2 percent, promise some kind of messaging feature between patients and providers today. Others (not included in this group) provide some kind messaging features so that family and friends can send messages to patients via the hospital app. Hospital staff then deliver those messages to the patient in their rooms. The four apps in this group, however, are facilitating messages between patients and providers.
60 percent offer educational content: While many of the features offered in hospital apps might be construed as educational material, 123 of the hospital apps for patients specifically pitched their apps as offering health news, medical reference materials, and the like. Educational content makes for the third most popular feature that hospital- branded apps offer patients with about 60 percent of apps including it.
6 percent include a symptom navigator: Although a symptom navigator could be considered educational content, this tool is often used in hospital-branded apps to route patients to an appropriate care provider. Some 13 patient-facing apps in our study were found to offer symptom navigators to users, which makes for about 6 percent of all hospital- branded apps. At least one app also specifically namedrops A.D.A.M. as its symptom navigator provider.
Less than 1 percent offer some kind of bill pay: Only one hospital app claims to let users pay for their hospital bills right from their mobile device: Dixie Regional Medical Center’s. The St. George, Utah-based hospital’s app description says it can help users “pay <1% hospital bills through a secure online portal”. While it appears to be offering a link out to a secure portal that users can access via their mobile’s browser, it is a first step toward mobile payment apps, which less than 1 percent of hospitals offer via their apps today.
28 percent have an emergency information component: About 28 percent of hospital apps, or 57 of them, offer users the ability to store some kind of information for emergency situations or EMTs. A number of these apps are branded using the popular 28% I.C.E. (in case of an emergency) acronym, and a few even help users make this emergency contact information or medical information an almost always visible part of their phone’s homescreen so emergency workers can access it without having to look for the app.
Since our September 2013 report was published more than a dozen hospital-branded apps for patients have launched in Apple's AppStore. All 16 of the apps MobiHealthNews found are free to download and they include apps from hospitals and healthcare systems located all over the US. Read on for a roundup of these apps including links to their description pages on the AppStore.
PeaceHealth MediLocator
The app provides patients with information about PeaceHealth Medical Centers in Alaska, Oregon, and the state of Washington. Patients can search for doctors by specialty or location, and view maps of the PeaceHealth Medical Centers.
St. Vincent's Health System
This hospital system, based in Birmingham, Alabama, offers the community a free dial-a-nurse information service, which patients can call or email. The app also offers a doctor locator so patients can search for a physician within the health system. Once a doctor is found, patients can view their office phone number & address, website, and driving directions to their office.
Baptist Health Lexington Mobile
The Baptist Health Lexington app provides patients with a tool to record health numbers for instance weight,steps in a day, blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol levels, and number of migraines; remind themselves to take their medicine and view their medication history; store insurance information; find a physician, locate the office, and call to ask a question or make an appointment; and preview articles about diseases and conditions. The app also offers a list of numbers for the hospital.
El Camino Hospital Health Beat
El Camino Hospital offers a healthy living news source called Health Beat, which patients can access in an app version. The hospital calls this the source for getting tips on healthy living from the hospital's medical staff. Stories include updates about the latest medical advances, wellness advice, and hospital services. This digital edition also offers access to important videos and interactive slide shows.
MyACH - Arkansas Children's Hospital
Patients who use MyACH get access to maps to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, Jonesboro and Lowell, Arkansas. Patients can create profiles for their family; store insurance, medication, provider information; and look up a symptom or condition within the app.
Niswonger Children's Hospital
The Tennessee-based Niswonger Children's Hospital's app offers users information about services at the facility, maps to the hospital, and a method to find a patient's car in the parking lot. Patients can also play games on the app, such as Solitaire and Tic Tac Toe.
St. Luke's Health System Provider Finder
This app offers patients access to a directory of St. Luke’s specialists and providers in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Patients can search the medical staff by name, specialty, and clinic location and will provide details on each provider’s specialty and expertise, clinic contact information, and if select providers are accepting new patients.
Sacred Heart Health System
Sacred Heart Health System developed the app to help patients search and locate Sacred Heart physicians that practice at hospitals and clinics in the Northwest Florida and South Alabama region. The app provides a link to the website, an explanation of services and a find a location section as well.
Children's On Call - Children's Hospital of Wisconsin
This app offers users a symptom checker, pictures of skin conditions to confirm if something similar happened to the user's child, and a one-click call button to contact a doctor, a pharmacy, 911 or the Children's Hospital. The app was derived from the clinical protocols used by pediatricians and nurses in 10,000 practices and 400 nurse advice call centers in the US and Canada has been tested for 15 years on more than 150 million symptom calls.
Tools4U - Nationwide Children's Hospital
Tools4U provides patients with access to clinical modules tailored towards specific patient clinical needs. The two modules currently available are Complex Care, which offers a feeding regimen and weight tracking journal, feeding tube troubleshooting guide and feeding tube quizzes, and Diabetes care, which has Diabetes Care and electronic insulin dose calculator, electronic blood glucose log, and carb counting resources.
Vibra Hospital of Boise
Features in the app include contact information and turn by turn GPS directions for the hospital, the Vibra Life Blog, news on current medical trends and technology, a visitor's map, appointment scheduling to tour the facility and emergency message notifications.
Vibra Hospital of Southeastern Michigan
Like Vibra's app for Boise, Vibra Hospital of Southeastern Michican offers contact information and turn by turn GPS directions for the hospital, the Vibra Life Blog, news on current medical trends and technology, a visitor's map, appointment scheduling to tour the facility and emergency message notifications.
University of Colorado Health
This app makes helps users find doctors, get directions and track and share important health indicators including cholesterol, weight, migraines, blood glucose, blood pressure, mood, and pregnancy. The app also includes medical content from Mayo Clinic with more than 1,000 articles about diseases and conditions, tests and procedures, health tips and first aid. Patients can use the app to find University of Colorado Health physicians in the area.
St. Vincent’s Medical Center
St. Vincent’s Medical Center app offers patients a way to find a doctor, browse facility locations, view services and specialties, watch videos and learn more about the medical center, which is located in Bridgeport, CT. The app also offers profiles of doctors who are a part of the center.
Carolinas HealthCare System
Carolinas HealthCare System mobile app helps users find locations of facilities, request an important, search for doctors by name or specialty, and check symptoms. Additional features include the option to check wait times at ER or urgent care facilities, find information on classes and events run by the hospital and connect with the hospital on Facebook and Twitter.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's aims to treat children with cancer and other deadly diseases. The app acts as a virtual pamphlet that explains what the hospital does and teaches the user more about the work being done at St. Jude. Because the majority of funding for St. Jude comes from public contributions, the hospital is also using the app as a way to explain to users how they can help.
