Michael Esquivel, a partner in Fenwick’s start-ups and venture capital group, was quoted in an American Medical News article titled “Has Mobile Health Monitoring Hit a Wall?”
While the availability of mobile health technology is on the rise, according to a PEW Internet & American Life Project report, there is a large discrepancy between the amount of technology available and the percentage of patients who use those tools to track health indicators.
However, Esquivel said that as these digital health technologies and apps evolve, apparent user stagnation in the adoption of mobile health apps will disappear. “I don’t see this as a plateau, but the very beginning."
The early mobile health adopters were primarily patients with a chronic disease and patients who were attracted to the novelty of it, he said.
“People are buying these things, and they are using them. But unless that data is actionable and meaningful and it actually helps improve your health in some manner … then the mere collection of data is a novelty that will wear off,” he said. Apps are starting to evolve as developers begin to recognize that they must do more to keep patients engaged, he added.