Six groups that will shape mHealth apps of the future

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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A Special ME-P Report

The Distinct Segment Publishers

By Ralf-Gordon Jahns and Markus Pohl

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Introduction

Dr. Marcinko and ME-P Readers and Subscribers,

Did you know that mHealth app publishers can be grouped into 6 distinct segments?

Segments differ mainly by goals, business approaches and performance. Their desire to help others distinguishes them from the rest of the app community. Knowing these segments is a pre-requisite for all those who wish to successfully participate in the new mHealth app ecosystem.

The Publishers

So, who is behind the 100,000 mHealth apps published in today’s app stores? How do the publishers differ in terms of motivation, development tool usage and satisfaction about goals achieved? The mHealth app publisher segmentation distinguishes 6 groups of current mHealth app publishers. This segmentation is based on the results of themHealth App Developer Economics 2014study.

A deeper knowledge about the mHealth app publishers is essential to all health market participants who wish to successfully navigate inside the newly emerging mHealth app ecosystem.

mHealth app publishers are not like game or tool app developers. 46% publish apps, because they want to help others. They also have objectives like revenue generation or raising brand awareness, but this “altruistic” attitude clearly distinguishes them from the rest of the app economy.

Within the six mHealth app companies, publishers with a strong medical background and those who leverage existing app development tools & APIs seem to accomplish their goals better than those who do that to a lesser extent.

Traditional healthcare players like Pharma, Med-tech or insurance companies have not been able to define their role in the market yet. Established Healthcare Players are the only segment “mainly not” satisfied with their goal achievement.

These are the profiles of the 6 distinct mHealth app publisher segments:

1) Established healthcare players:

This group includes Pharma, hospitals, health insurance and Med-tech companies, representing 3.4% of the total number of app publishers. These players usually belong to the mHealth app publishers with > 5,000 employees. Their primary objective for being in the market is to raise brand awareness and they have published the largest number of mHealth apps. Nevertheless, average reach in terms of downloads is far below the market’s average. App publishers in this group are so far the least satisfied with the achievements in the mHealth app market. The usage of tools and APIs to improve the efficiency of the app development process and app monitoring as well as the value of the app is below its competitors.

2) App specialists:

App specialists are small companies, which typically hire 3-10 employees. They have entered the mHealth app market in order to benefit from its potential. They have an app developer background and are familiar with available development and support tools. The share of medical experts on board is relatively low. This group constitutes 14% of the mHealth app publisher community.

3) Helpers:

Helpers’ primary motivation for publishing apps is to help others and they are usually organized into small companies of 3-10 employees. Revenue generation is only a minor factor. Typically Helpers have already achieved or over-achieved their goals. In terms of downloads, they have the highest share of companies (61%) that achieved less than 5,000 downloads last year. Helpers represent 32% of the market.

4) Medical specialists:

Medical specialists leverage their medical know-how to develop mobile apps. Similar to the Helper group, Medical specialist have a large share of members who publish apps to help others. By far they have partly reached their goals. They have the highest share of companies, which in 2013 earned more than USD 1m with their mHealth app portfolio. They represent 20% of the market.

5) Fitness specialists:

This group of app developers represents around 10% of the total mHealth app developer community. They primarily develop fitness apps with a clear objective to generate revenue. They connect more often to medical databases and sensors and use app development tools above average. The usual company size is 11-100 employees.

6) Connecters:

This group of mHealth app publishers represents 18% of the total mHealth app developer community. Their strategy is to create value rich apps by enabling connection to other apps, sensors and databases. This group generates the highest average revenue and has the highest goal achievement level.

Apps

Assessment 

The mHealth app publisher segmentation is a snapshot of the current state of the market. It will change as segments become more important (medical specialists) or new groups appear.  One of the main questions will be if and how traditional healthcare players will be able to compete with these small and agile companies that are driving the market today.

More:

Conclusion

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References:

Link to blog post:

http://mhealtheconomics.com/mhealth-segmentation-of-app-publishers-business-approaches/

Link to graph:

http://mhealtheconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/research2guidance_mHealth_6_segments_business_approaches.jpg

Link to free report:

http://mhealtheconomics.com/mhealth-developer-economics-report/

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

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7 Responses

  2. Ann Miller RN MHA, on June 10, 2014 at 4:56 PM said:

    Preliminary Reviews

    Apple’s New HealthKit Could Be ‘Revolutionary’?

    http://www.quora.com/What-do-doctors-think-of-HealthKit?utm_source=6.10.14&utm_campaign=11713&utm_medium=email

    Ann Miller RN MHA

    Like

  3. Hope R. Hetico RN MHA, on June 19, 2014 at 5:14 PM said:

    Meet the Disrupters
    [Apple, Google and Samsung]

    Yep – Tech giants are vying to outdo each other in the ever-expanding mHealth arena.

    http://www.hhnmag.com/display/HHN-news-article.dhtml?dcrPath=/templatedata/HF_Common/NewsArticle/data/HHN/Daily/2014/Jun/061914-weinstock-connectingthecontinuum&utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HHN

    Their influence on consumer behavior could be a disruption for medical providers and traditional health care IT vendors.

    Hope R. Hetico RN MHA

    Like

  4. Jed, on June 22, 2014 at 12:14 PM said:

    Color me Skeptical

    This doctor is skeptical about Apple’s HealthKit.
    Here’s why.

    http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/06/doctor-skeptical-apples-healthkit-heres.html

    Jed

    Like

  5. Tina Koro, on June 23, 2014 at 5:34 PM said:

    7 rules to making mHealth messaging meaningful

    1. Determine the target behavior and demographic for the mobile messaging app
    2. Determine the best modality – mobile application or standard SMS
    3. Develop the message content to support the targeted behavior using a sound behavioral framework
    4. Determine how to best incorporate interactive messaging to sustain engagement
    5. Develop an approach to sustain and monitor engagement
    6. Develop approaches to measure outcomes and user engagement
    7. Develop user feedback for continuous improvement

    Source: mHealth News

    Like

  6. Rick Krohn MA MAS, on November 4, 2014 at 2:40 PM said:

    Fired up – Ready to go

    For years, mobile health was considered a promising suite of technologies and innovations–for some future point in time. But with incredible speed and innovation, mHealth has catapulted to healthcare’s center stage.

    Here are four definitive reasons that mHealth is ready for now.

    1. Connectivity
    mHealth is unique in its capability to create connectivity among healthcare’s stakeholders–for care coordination, patient engagement, resource allocation, chronic-disease management, self-care, population health and wellness, event response; the list keeps growing. It creates channels of communication that are pervasive and persistent, and removes barriers to information, care, and access.

    2. Collaboration
    By aligning the inputs to healthcare finance and delivery, everybody can benefit from mHealth solutions:

    * Providers benefit from efficient care coordination, patient satisfaction, and financial incentives tied to pay-for-performance.
    * Patients benefit from better care and from a more active role in their own health management.
    * Payers can incentivize wellness and prevention.
    * Vendors are opening new vistas of opportunity for clinical collaboration with hardware and app innovations.

    3. Convenience
    In the mHealth ecosystem, information isn’t pushed or pulled–it’s shared persistently and pervasively. Health information is shared in real-time between providers, patients and consumers in bilateral flows, but can include a larger universe of stakeholders including payers, employers, public health, social services, researchers, solutions providers, partners, supply chain and more. Information is now portable, personalized and participatory, making it a perfect complement to the patient-centric model of healthcare–unbound by age, location or economic strata.

    4. Cost
    mHealth solutions do not require a sizable, irreversible capital investment. And unlike other technology solutions whose foremost purpose is to digitize manual processes, mHealth is oriented around re-engineering processes, with technology acting as an enabler. That’s a critical distinction–mHealth is not about technology as the solution–it’s about technology as a component of a process solution.

    This is a hinge moment in healthcare–a golden opportunity to reinvent care delivery and deliver a quantum leap in both clinical quality and outcomes. This transformation is not being led by a select group of visionaries–it’s happening right now, across the broad expanse of healthcare, by those at the point of care–the provider and the patient.

    http://www.mhealthsummit.org/blog/4-reasons-mobile-health-ready-now?

    Rick Krohn MA MAS

    Like

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