As investors invest record amounts of money into digital healthcare companies, consumers and benefit managers need to evaluate more and more applications.A sort of New report from IQVIA Institute of Human Data Science Turn it into a number.
The authors of the report identified 150 commercially available digital therapies and digital care products.The former includes software that can be prescribed like drugs, such as Akili’s mobile game improves the attention of children with ADHD, And the latter includes procedures that help people manage clinical conditions, such as Omada’s digital diabetes prevention program.
The idea of prescription software is relatively new, and there are still many details that need to be addressed, such as payment model and payer coverage. But the companies that develop these tools are building more and more evidence.
Murray Aitken, executive director of the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, said in a press release: “We are finding evidence of the maturity of digital health tools in mainstream medicine.” “Although applications and digital Health tools have grown significantly, but we are beginning to see improvements in the quality of digital health tools in terms of health management.”
The report said that so far, at least 25 digital therapies have been marketed by the US Food and Drug Administration.Another 23 are commercially available, with some behavioral health applications Waiver of FDA requirements Let the company file a 510(k) pre-listing notice during the pandemic. The IQVIA report identified 89 digital therapies that are still in development.
The space for digital care products is much broader, and there are several examples where platforms are covered by health plans and insurance companies. Nearly one hundred of these products have entered the commercialization stage.
According to IQVIA, more than 2,000 studies evaluating the efficacy of digital health tools have been published, most of which were published in the past five years. Even so, many organizations still correctly point out the need for more high-quality evidence, including more robust and longer-running clinical trials.
In-depth understanding of health applications
Looking at health apps more broadly, people have many choices-although not all apps are great. According to the report, more than 90,000 health applications were released last year, giving people a total of more than 350,000 to analyze. Although about half of them still focus on general activities and health monitoring, more and more people are focusing on helping people manage specific health conditions, such as mental health, diabetes, and heart disease.
This is not to say that all these applications are worth using. Only 110 of them accounted for about half of all downloads.
According to IQVIA’s analysis, the average quality of these apps is moderate, which means that consumers should carefully evaluate which apps they have downloaded. These health apps do not always take a privacy-centric approach.Many other studies have raised privacy issues, from Apps that track Covid-19 arrive Period tracking app and even Support applications for patients with opioid use disorders.
Pay attention to behavioral health
Another interesting content of the report is to focus on all categories of mental health and neurological diseases, from health apps to digital therapies. Approximately 22% of all apps that manage specific health conditions focus on behavioral health, surpassing apps for diabetes and heart disease.
At the same time, mental health and neurological diseases account for more than two-thirds of all digital treatments and more than 40% of all digital care programs.
There are many talks about the need for better mental health support during the pandemic, and this may be a contributing factor.But it’s also worth noting that mental health It became an important driving force for virtual visits even before Covid-19.
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