Verasoni Mha 2012

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http://verasoni.com/ahha3/mobile-health-applications-2012-study/

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verasoni.co

Mobile Health Applications: 2012 Study

I am pleased to present the VerasoniWorldwides AhHa! Insights Mobi

.Health Applications: 2012 StudyThe study is a snapshot of what

people are doing with healthcarerelated mobile applications, whatplatforms they are using and it alsoexamines the popularity of healthcapplication downloads by categorieand specific applications themselve

There is no shortage to theaspirations of the Mobile HealthApplications market ( ) in tmHealthUnited States and around the world

Healthcare players from life scienccompanies, pharmaceuticals,hospitals, insurers and beyond arescrambling to make sense of theopportunities that 4G mobileapplications can deliver for theirbusiness enterprise and for improvipatient health. They have alreadybeen experimenting with other digiplatforms such as web and socialmedia, yet carries amHealthdisruptive rumbling in a marketpla

that is searching to capitalize on thepromise of even more data throughhyper-mobile inter-connectivity.

As with many industries, innovatiois key in healthcare, not simply onthe clinical and pharmaceutical sidbut in the seemingly sleepy, yetever-important areas such as patienaccess and compliance. After all,patient behavior how people use

these healthcare applications is kto the success of mHealthapplications. We define success asraising awareness or improvement a persons particular healthcondition.

I hope you enjoy our report and finit relevant and insightful. As withour other research projects, blogs areports, we welcome your feedback
http://verasoni.com/ahha3/mobile-health-applications-2012-study/http://verasoni.com/ahha3/mobile-health-applications-2012-study/


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Infographic[1]

Abe KasboCEOVerasoni Worldwide

=========================

Executive Summary

About the Verasoni Worldwide2012 Mobile Health Applications Study:AhHa! Insights

Media and technology move at an exponential and extraordinary pace. The subsequent rapid adoption of devicesand platforms also happens at a swift tempo leaving healthcare providers, including life sciences companies,pharmaceuticals, hospitals, physicians and dentists, and healthcare professionals to wonder how to use theseplatforms, which platforms to choose and what type of investment in applications would make solid business sense

People today have unparalleled access to healthcare information via the web, and that number will surely continue increase due to the mobile web, with the proliferation of smart phones and tablets. Indeed, mobility is drivinggrowth in healthcare applications and delivering unprecedented access to healthcare information and tools to peoplwho want to be engaged in both their healthcare and well-being. This presents a unique set of challenges for thosehealthcare enterprises hoping to capitalize on mobile health or opportunities.mHealth

This study looks at the behavior of people and what applications they are downloading with respect to health,wellness and medical mobile applications. In looking at download data, it appears that adoption of ismHealthgrowing at a furious pace. The rapid rise of does require healthcare enterprises to develop a more nimblemHealthentrepreneurial mindset relative to the digital world. Yet, we caution, as far as we have come in connectedhealthcare, the market is still at its infancy, much like the web of the early 1990s.

Since the app world is massive, this study looked at the top 150 mobile health applications downloaded.mHealthWe defined top 150 by the number of downloads. We looked at the top 150 on two platforms, Android and iOS(iPhone only) for a total of 300 applications downloaded in the United States only. The factor of inclusion was thenumber of downloads specifically for the iPhone and Android devices.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project (Half of Adult Cell Phone Owners Have Apps on Their, November 2, 2011), of adults who download apps to a cell phone, 11% of all adult cell phone users havePhone

reported downloading an app that helps them manage their health. We thought it would be useful, through thisstudy, to look at what types of apps are being downloaded to gain a better understanding of how people may be usithese apps and the types of health related issues apps are being used for.

Study Scope & Limitations

This study is a snapshot in time and looked at the total number of applications downloaded through MarcmHealth31, 2012. The study reviewed available data from Xyologic, iTunes and Google Play. However, data was primarisourced from Xyologic, because, in our opinion, it offered a more comprehensive data set relative to the parameter

of this particular study. It is important to note that this study and its sponsors by no means endorse or have been paby Xyologic.

We looked at health related mobile applications categorized under Medical and Health and Fitness for bothAndroid and the iPhone. Because there are thousands of applications, we decided to focus on the top 150 Androidand the top 150 iPhone applications downloaded in the United States only.mHealth

Data acquisition was done within a period of two weeks, to better provide a consistent comparison among downloanumbers. We approached our study as any user who may actively search for health related apps. Searches wereconducted by search term top [health/medical] apps, since this wording yielded more top ranking applications thother attempted searches, including top ranking [health/medical] apps, best [health/ medical] apps,

[health/medical] apps by download, among others.


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1.2.3.4.5.

Although Xyologic tells the total number of downloads of applications across sectors including healthcare, we counot obtain the top 150 apps across all sectors in order to compare the top 150 healthcare app downloads against thetotal universe. Nonetheless, we have been able to obtain the total app download number which we think gives ussome perspective on how mobile health apps are faring with respect to downloads.

While some iOS applications may work on the iPad, we specifically studied downloaded mHealth application datafor the iPhone only. This study looked at the top 150 healthcare apps within the totals across the aforementionedplatforms (a total of 300 apps 150 for the iPhone and 150 for Android).

Data Sources

This study relied on data from Xyologic.com.

Xyologic as a Source and Its Limitations

Xyologic.com was used as a primary source for download information and although they do not publish theirformula for determining application download rank, it is closely tied to the number of downloads per month, priceand the publishers other successful applications.

We focused primarily on the number of downloads as a factor for inclusion, including:

Number of (US only) downloads since an application was releasedCategory (e.g. exercise, nutrition, reference, etc.)Subcategory when applicableCost if anyiPhone and/or Android Market

In correspondence about the origin of its statistics, Xyologic.com told us: We daily scrub Googles and Apples astores, most of the information is obtained this way. Download numbers are statistically estimated from the publicapp stores data and our private database of real download values.

General Limitations

Within the app categories, there was some overlap. The following categories included apps that overlapped:

1.Reference and Medication2.Sleep and Meditation and Mystical3.Weight Loss and Nutrition4. Tools and Instruments and Medical History, Tracker5. Tools and Instruments and Reference6. Reference and Emergency

Key Findings

1. Medical applications, such as Emergency, Medication and especially Reference, were downloaded more byAndroid users than by iPhone users. There were also a greater number of such applications available for Android.Reference applications, for example, were downloaded ten times more by Android consumers than by iPhoneconsumers.

2. Android consumers were more likely than iPhone consumers to download a Weight Loss application in March,but total download numbers showed the reverse. (See Category Total Downloads.)

3. There were more top Sleep and Meditation applications available to iPhone consumers than Androids, (SeeNumber of Apps by Category).


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Chart 1 Top 150 mHealth Applications By Platform

4. When total download numbers are considered, (Category Total Downloads) Weight Loss and Exercise compri60%. When removed from consideration, the following are the top six categories, in order:

a. Womens Healthb. Sleep and Meditationc. Pregnancyd. Tools and Instrumentse. Referencef. Emergency

5. Top grossing applications for both Android and iPhone were Exercise, Weight Loss, Sleep and Meditation andWomens Health. However, the Android markets top grossing applications were, in order, Reference, Exercise,Weight Loss, Tools and Instruments and Sleep and Meditation.

6. Downloads for paid applications were 7 times higher for iPhone applications than for Android applications.

MHealth Apps on the iPhone Dominate Android

The top 150 apps on iPhone far outpaced downloads of the top 150 apps on Android.mHealth mHealth

Chart 1: Top 150 Applications By Platform. N=300mHealth

Platforms and LowAcquisition of DevCosts DrivingGrowth

Be it Android, App(iOS: iPhone & iPaor Google Play thepotent proliferationthese devices havebecome thespringboard to thegrowth of mHealthapplications marketHealthcare, alreadyhigh on the list of

search categories inthe United States,will surely translateto mobile webapplications. But thquestion remains,

how? According to the Pew Research Centers most recent study, Nearly half (46%) of American adults aresmartphone owners as of February 2012, an increase of 11 percentage points over the 35% of Americans who owna smartphone in May of 2011. The Pew study seems to corroborate the trend found in Nielsens Q3, 2011 studywhich showed that feature phones held a 57% market share, while smartphone penetration was at 43%.

We surmise that the lower cost of smartphones and tablets will naturally spur growth in the sale of these platforms


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Screen Shot 2012-07-31 at 2.06.19 PM

and provide more fertile ground for growth of the mobile applications market including healthcare relatedapplications.

The promise of the 4G era will take our new interconnectedness beyond just the social aspect and mobility willultimately lead the way. According to the Deloitte Research Open Mobile Survey 2011-2012, the healthcare sectois thought to be the most promising new mobile growth channelSeventy-eight percent (of study respondents)stated that the healthcare/life sciences sector held the most potential.

Robust Downloads of Healthcare Applications

While Angry Birds it is not, mobile applications, as a genre, appear to be downloaded at a furious pacemHealthLike the rest of the applications landscape there are free apps and paid apps in the space.mHealth

Weight Loss Is the Heavy: Weight Loss Apps Dominate By Far

We found of the top 150 apps across iPhone and Android platforms, applications related to weight loss anmHealthexercise far outpaced other healthcare applications. Of the top five apps for iPhone and Android, Lose It andCalorie Counter & Diet combined for over 24 million downloads (12,400,000 and 11,700,000 respectively). Thetop 5 is rounded by Pregnancy Tracker at just over 2.5 million downloads, a running app IMAPMYRUN at 2.4million downloads and Period Tracker Lite at just over 2.2 million downloads.

Chart 2: Top Five Downloaded Apps: iPhone & AndroidmHealth

For the iPhone, weight loss continues todominate with Lose It with almost 12.5million downloads as the number onedownloaded app in the Top 150 followed byCalorie Counter & Diet Tracker at almost million downloads. Pregnancy Trackerfollows in third place with just over 2.5

million downloads, closely followed byIMAPMYRUN at 2.4 million downloads,and rounding out the Top 5 most downloade

apps is Period Tracker Lite withmHealthjust over 2.2 million downloads.

Chart 3: Top Five iPhone Apps: n =mHealth150

Of the top 5 Androiapps, three of the tofive are weight loss

related apps led byCalorie CounterMyFitnessPal at 8million downloads,Calorie Counter FastSecret at justover 4.3 milliondownloads andAlarm Clock Plusat just over 3.6million downloads

(we included this ap


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Chart 4 Top Five Android mHealth Apps

Chart 3 Top Five iPhone mHealth Apps

as part of thehealthcare genrebecause weconsidered it a sleerelated application)These are followedby Instant HeartRate at just over 3million downloadsand Noom WeightLoss Coach whichrounds out the top 5with 2.8 milliondownloads.

Chart 4: Top FiveAndroid mHealthApps: n = 150

Exercise Leads inCategory

Exercise is theleading categoryacross both iPhoneand Android.Exercise is ahead balmost three to oneExercise leads thefield with 102 apps34% of the top 150apps on both iPhon

and Android.Exercise is followeby reference (34 or11%), Weight Loss(31 or 10%), Sleepand Meditation (269%), WomensHealth (21 or 7%),Tools andInstruments (19 or6%), Medication (1or 5%), Pregnancy

(14 or 5%), whileOther whichencompasses

disparate and various health applications comes in at 38 or 13%.

Chart 5: Number of Apps By Category: iPhone & Android. N = 300mHealth

Chart 6: Percentageof Apps bmHealthCategory: iPhone&Android. N = 300


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Chart 6 Percentage of mHealth Apps by Category

Chart 5 Number of mHealth Apps By Category

Healthcare AppCategories byPlatform: iPhone

Exercise is theleading app categorfor iPhones by a wimargin. The numbeof exercise apps isthree times the nextnearest category,Sleep and MeditatioThere are 58 apps ithe Exercisecategory making up39% of the top 150apps followed bySleep & Meditatioapps at 16 or 11%.Weight Loss apprepresent 9% of the

total with 14 apps,followed byWomens Healthapps with 11 or 7%and Pregnancy (9or 6%). Nutritionand Tools andInstruments werefound to have 8 appout the total, eachrespectively

representing 5%,followed closely byMedication with also at 5%, while 1or 13% of varioushealthcare apps in ttop 150 are placed ithe category of

Other on the iOS platform.

Chart 7: Number of iPhone Apps by Category: n = 150mHealth

Chart 8: Percentageof iPhone mHealthApps by Category: = 150

Healthcare App


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Chart 8 Percentage of iOS mHealth Apps by Category

Chart 7 Number of iPhone mHealth Apps by Category

Categories byPlatform: Android

Not unexpectedly, the Android MarkeExercise leads thway with 44 appstaking a 29% sharethe top of 150healthcare appsthrough March 31,2012. It is followedby Reference wit28 or 19%, then byWeight Loss with17 apps or 11%, theTools &Instruments at 11 7%. We found 10Sleep & Meditatioand Womens

Health appsrespectively witheach taking a 7%share of the top 150apps on the Androimarket, followed byMedication with or 5%. We found 2various apps that wwere unable tocategorize with a

coherent medical orhealthcare relatedlabel, similar to whwe discovered foriPhone.

Chart 9: Number ofAndroid Apps byCategory. N = 150

Chart 10: Percentagof Android Apps by

Category. N = 150

Weight Loss is theHeavy: CategoryDominates TotalNumber ofDownloads on iPho& Android

With almost 50million downloads

through March 31,


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Chart 10 Percentage of Android Apps by Category

Chart 9 Number of Android Apps by Category

2012, Weight Losapps clearly dominthe field outpacingthe next category balmost 2 to 1.Exercise followsWeight Loss withalmost 26.5 million(21%) downloads,followed byWomens Healthalmost 10.5 million(8%) downloads. Wfound just over 8.1million (6%) Sleepand Meditation apwere downloadedwhile just under 7.5million (6%)Pregnancy appswere downloaded

during the sametimeframe. Just ove6 million (5%)healthcare or medicTools andInstruments weredownloaded, whileapproximately 18.3million (14%)Other healthcareapps within the top

150 apps weredownloaded.

Chart 11: Number oDownloads byCategory: iPhone &Android

Chart 12: Percentagof Downloads ByCategory: iPhone &Android

Weight LossCategory is Tops oniPhone

The categoryWeight Loss leadthe way on iPhonewith almost 31.5million downloadswhich accounts for

46% of the top 150


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Chart 12 Percentage of Downloads By Category

Chart 11 Number of Downloads by Category

healthcare appsdownloaded fromiPhone, nearly threetimes as many as thnext category,Exercise whichfollowed with almo11 million or 16%.Womens Heathtracks third on iPhowith over 7.3 or 11million whilePregnancyfollowed at almost million downloads 7%. Almost 4.5million Sleep &Meditation appswere downloaded, o7% of the totalhealthcare apps

downloaded. Justover 8.5 millionhealthcare apps fellinto the Othercategory.

Chart 13: Number oiPhone DownloadsBy Category

Chart 14: Number o

iPhone DownloadsBy Category

Weight Loss Is Topon Android Too

It appears thatWeight Loss as acategory doesnt hathat much more daylight between it andthe following

category Exerciserelative to its peer oiPhone. WeightLoss apps weredownloaded just ov18.5 million times o31% of the totalnumber of appsdownloaded in thetop 150 healthcareapps. It is closely

followed by


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Chart 14 Number of iPhone Downloads By Category

Chart 13 Number of iPhone Downloads By Category

Exercise at almos15.5 milliondownloads or 26%.Healthcare or mediTools &Instruments weredownloaded just ov4.7 million (8%)times, whileReference andSleep & Meditatiowere downloaded juover 4.3 million (7%and 3.7 million (6%times respectively.Emergencyhealthcare apps werdownloaded just ov3.1 million times anrepresent 5% of thetotal number of

downloads in the to150 healthcareapplications on theAndroid market,while WomensHealth applicationwere downloadedjust over 3 million(5%) times and jusover 6.1 million(10%) applications

were downloaded thfell into the Othercategory.

Chart 15: Number oAndroid Downloadby Category

Chart 16: Percentagof AndroidDownloads byCategory

The Business of Freand Paid mHealthApps

There are free andpaid apps in theapposphere and tsame, of course,holds true formHealth

applications. Of th


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Chart 16 Percentage of Android Downloads by Category

Chart 15 Number of Android Downloads by Category

top 150 apmHealthacross iPhone andAndroid, we foundthat people indeedpaid for healthcareapps. Prices rangefrom $.99 to $7.99 the top 150 mHealtapps. The top fivepaid apps acrossiPhone and Androidclosely mirror the tfive in the totaluniverse studies.Naturally, Exercisled the way with juunder 2.2 millionpaid downloads, anarrow lead overSleep & Meditatiowith just over 2.1

million paiddownloads, followeby Weight Losswith just under 1.8million paiddownloads, withWomens Healthtrailing with justunder 1 million paidownloads whileOther representin

a multitude of paidapps weremHealthdownloaded justunder 2 million tim

Chart 17: Paid AppDownloads byCategory, Android iPhone

Paid Apps byPlatform

On iPhone, just ove2 million Sleep anMeditationapplications werepaid for, followed bExercise at justover 1.8 million anWeight Loss withalmost 1.6 million.Womens Health

paid apps were


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Chart 18 iPhone App Downloads by Category

Chart 17 Paid App Downloads by Category

downloaded just ov800,000 times. Thewere just over 1.6million downloadsfor Other,representing a varieof health apps. It iinteresting to notethat downloads forpaid applicationswere 7 times higherfor iPhoneapplications than foAndroid application

Chart 18: Paid iPhoApp Downloads byCategory

Paid apps on theAndroid devices we

downloaded muchless than for iPhoneSince we wanted tocover as manycategories aspossible, we lookedat eight categoriesinstead of five.Exercise leads thway with just under350,000 with

Weight Loss adistant second at juover 200,000 paiddownloads. Toolsand Instruments papps weredownloaded just ov111,000 times,followed closely bySleep and

Meditation at just under 110,000 times. A significant drop off from there to about 66,000 paid downloads forReference with Womens Health following at 57,600, Emergency at almost 50,000 followed by a compilatio

of paid apps that we categorized under Other with almost 90,000 downloads.mHealth

Chart 19: Paid Android App Downloads by Category

What We Know.What We DontKnow.

It is important to nothat companies likeNike and others are

leading the way wit


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Chart 19 Paid Android App Downloads by Category

connected gadgetslike the FuelBand tallow users to wearwrist band andmeasure how activeuser may be duringthe day and deliverthat data through aNike FuelBand appAccording toWired.com (Januar20, 2012), the realvalue in FuelBandcould be in helpinyou manage and traactivities over timeachieve fitness andweight-loss goals.How people responto the feedback theyreceive from the ap

and what they do about it is, of course, unknown. Mayo Clinic has developed an app for the iPad that allowspatients to learn about recovery after heart surgery, access their plan of care and ask questions about their progressThis information is then transferred through the app to the patients healthcare team for monitoring and response.

We know that the mobile market will continue to grow and by every measure it is anticipated to surpass the desktomarket. We also know that healthcare applications are being downloaded at a brisk pace, though in this study weonly looked at the top 150 healthcare applications across two platforms (iPhone and Android). What we dont knois how and if these apps are being used and to what extent. We dont know if these applications are havinmHealtha positive impact on the users healthcare as and if intended by the app itself.

Conclusion

Weight loss and exercise dominate the top 150 apps across iPhone and Android. Free apps dominatemHealthrelative to paid applications, but since we do not have access to usage information it is not possible to determine ifpaid apps are used more than free apps or vice versa. What is clear is that there is no shortage of consumerhealthcare applications. Yet, download data is insufficient to determine whether people are actually using each apfor its intended purpose and actually receiving a health benefit.

As mobile devices and networks continue to grow, it is reasonable to state that consumers will drive the mHealthmarket. Further, as continues to be adopted, it could present new ways of reaching consumers / patients vmHealththe app market, though we are still uncertain what impact any of these apps are having on improving themHealthhealth status of those using them because there is no significant data available to us at this time that addresses thesubject, and certainly, its very early in the game.

This exercise has also shed light on the fact that the most downloaded apps are not those that allow peoplmHealthto monitor their heart rate and send it to their cardiologists within seconds. The most popular downloaded apps areweight and exercise related. Our findings here seem to ring true with experts in the field like Francis Collins whossaid in her article The Real Promise of Mobile Health Apps in American Scientific (July 10, 2012), that the mostpopular apps downloaded pale next to the potential to aid in medical research and health care.mHealth mHealth

As we have stated earlier, we believe that we are still early in the mobile health applications game. The potential fwill be encumbered only by our imagination and our ability to be compliant with the requirements of themHealth

technology and processes of the various applications. At the risk of overstating the obvious, more data anmHealth


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research is needed about how people are using applications, because ultimately, the technology is alreadymHealththere. This begs the question, will we adjust our behavior as people and patients to allow the technology to do itsintended job?

AcknowledgementsAbe Kasbo, Research Director

Research AssociateRachel McLaughlin,EditorChristine Falco,

Associate EditorSasha Idriss,Graphic DesignerEdith Moczarska,

Documents

Verasoni Mha 2012