Survey: Execs Find Data Privacy Biggest Barrier to #mHealth Adoption http://t.co/Rbd8ZOIePN #digitalhealth #hitsm pic.twitter.com/xwOGcTZMZ1
— HIT Consultant Media (@hitconsultant) February 4, 2015
This was an interesting survey with some great insights into mhealth adoption. Although, I’m not sure I agree with the tweet describing the results. Privacy is a major factor in mHealth adoption, but I think that fear of people making poor decisions based on misinterpreted or poor information is the biggest barrier for mHealth adoption.
It makes sense. Do we trust our mHealth devices and apps? What will it take for mHealth apps to be trusted with our health?
I saw a tweet today (sorry I can’t find it again) that said something like 40,000 people use a health app every day. Regardless of the specific number, what’s clear is that people are using wellness apps like crazy. It’s not quite as crazy as game apps, but not far behind either.
With all this app usage, what’s been the results? How much do people actually trust the apps? What do they trust the apps to do?
A great example happened this morning for my wife (obviously she’s the one using these apps and not me, but I digress.). She got a new watch to track her runs. However, she was complaining to me this morning about why the watch couldn’t be accurate, because she ran a different route that was farther and the watch said it was the same distance. In that moment, my wife lost some trust in the app. Plus, we’re just talking about trusting a watch to tell you distance. It’s not telling her some health decision that’s much more challenging and with a lot more variables.
I agree that privacy is an important part of every healthcare app, but the bigger key is going to find a way to build your users’ trust in your app. An app that’s able to do that will be golden. I don’t think many mHealth apps have done that yet, despite usage.
