How To Build a Better Patient Engagement App

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Mobile Smith offers six tips for creating a successful patient engagement app.

A growing body of research suggests people actively involved in their healthcare tend to have better clinical outcomes and may incur lower healthcare costs. Mobile engagement, among other strategies, is proving to be particularly successful in multiple areas, such as wellness and lifestyle management, medication adherence, and patient education to name but a few.

With the near saturation of our population with smartphones and near instant means of communication, branded mobile apps appear to be the logical route to patient engagement and satisfaction.

However, with more than 40,000 mHealth apps available today, finding a truly efficient patient engagement app is a real challenge. Most apps do little more than provide information, much of which is often unreliable. Only two-thirds of mHealth apps are actually used after being downloaded, few are used more than once, and fewer still demonstrate measurable results.

To counter those sobering facts, Mobile Smith is offering advice for creating a successful patient engagement app. Here are six simple steps that can help take your hospital into the brighter mobile future.

1. Research: Do the research to ensure that your mobile app actually fills a need for your patients. What is most important to them? Medication reminders? Be sure to study the successful features and ratings from the many apps hospitals have created for their patients to benefit your building process.
2. Brainstorm: After researching, the next step is to establish the role of your new app. List all of the apps features, but be careful not to overload the app, as too many features will dilute it and deliver an inferior user experience.
3. Budget: Obviously, financial concerns are central to any development idea. Be sure to consider the entire lifecycle during planning. Figure in development costs, testing, marketing, and upgrades in the final figures.
4. Make Your Patient Engagement App a Reality: This is the building process, which turns your app into a reality. Throughout building, your app should be tested continuously on real mobile devices to ensure the best experience for your users.
5. Engage: Studies have demonstrated that physician recommendation is a proven way to persuade patients to use a health app, yet only 1/3 of doctors recommended an app to their patients last year. Getting physicians at your hospital to share your app with patients will give the app a huge boost.
6. Recycle: Be sure to stay on top of upgrading or adapting mobile apps to stay relevant and useful to your patients.