Consumer Health Apps and Digital Health Tools Proliferate, Improving Quality and Health Outcomes for Patients, Says New Report from IQVIA Institute
July 22 2021 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
- Consumer health apps are the most widely available and used
digital tools. More than 90,000 new apps were released in 2020,
resulting in more than 350,000 apps currently available
- Digital therapeutics and digital care product apps for disease
management are growing in number. They are also gaining
endorsements by healthcare professionals, approvals by regulatory
bodies, and reimbursements by payers
- Validated wearables and digital biomarkers are diversifying and
gaining adoption. Increasing use drives remote monitoring of
patients to guide care and enables decentralized clinical trial
designs
- Evidence of digital health tools’ positive impact on health
outcomes is mounting and becoming more robust. This trend supports
inclusion in treatment guidelines for an expanded set of health
indications
- Commercialization is also maturing with multiple pathways now
established and approval and reimbursement by payers and employers
propelled by pandemic-driven efforts to accelerate use of digital
health tools
Digital health tools are increasingly having a positive impact
on health outcomes. Some are becoming integral parts of mainstream
medicine, according to findings released today by the IQVIA
Institute for Human Data Science in a new report, Digital Health
Trends 2021: Innovation, Evidence, Regulation, and Adoption.
The number of consumer health apps continues to grow with more
than 90,000 news apps released in 2020. According to the report,
that makes more than 350,000 apps currently available for
consumers. Furthermore, apps are increasingly focused on helping
consumers manage their health conditions rather than on wellness
management. Consumer disease management apps now account for 47
percent of the most widely used digital health apps in 2020, up
from 28 percent in 2015. Apps for mental health, diabetes, and
cardiovascular care account for almost half of the disease-specific
apps. Simultaneously, digital therapeutics and digital care
products are growing in volume and gaining reimbursements.
Evidence of the positive impact on health outcomes from the use
of digital tools is also increasing and becoming more robust. This
evidence supports inclusion of these tools in treatment guidelines
for an expanded set of health conditions. At the same time,
validated wearables and digital biomarkers are more numerous. These
devices are gaining adoption in clinical trials and are enabling
remote monitoring of patients.
“We are finding evidence of a growing maturity of digital health
tools in mainstream medicine,” said Murray Aitken, IQVIA senior
vice president and executive director of the IQVIA Institute for
Human Data Science. “While there has been a significant growth in
apps and digital health tools since 2013, we are beginning to
detect improved quality of the digital health tools in the
management of health conditions. These quality improvements result
in robust evidence of their impact on patient outcomes and
subsequent inclusion in clinical practice. The growing success of
digital health is a testament to the value and sustained impact of
its innovation that bodes well for further advances in medicine and
healthcare moving forward.”
A few key highlights of the report include:
- Growing maturity of digital health tools: Multiple types
of digital health tools contributed to reducing the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic. These tools are now established parts of the
digital health landscape. Consumer apps are the most widely used
digital health tools, shifting rapidly toward disease-specific
needs. But quality is inconsistent, and consumers need to be
selective.
- Digital Therapeutics and Digital Care products:
Incorporating software as a means to treat, prevent or manage
specific diseases or conditions has increased. More than 250 such
products are now identified, including about 150 products
commercially available and the rest in development.
- Wearables and digital biomarkers: The use of wearables,
connected sensors and digital biomarkers is expanding. They are
gaining adoption in clinical trials and enabling remote monitoring
of patients that can influence care delivery. Activity monitoring
devices that measure heart rate, steps taken, distance traveled,
and calories burned account for about 55 percent of the 384
wearable devices currently marketed to consumers. Sensors and
digital biomarkers are being incorporated into the design of
clinical trials for pharmaceuticals and medical devices and are
enabling decentralized and hybrid trials with home visits that
reduce patient and investigator burden and accelerate clinical
trial timelines.
- Evidence: The body of evidence around the effectiveness
of digital health apps is now substantial and supports the
inclusion of digital health tools in treatment guidelines for an
expanded set of health indications. These include cardiovascular
applications and the management of some chronic conditions (e.g.,
pain). More than 2,000 efficacy studies have been published since
2007, including almost 1,500 published in the past five years.
- Commercialization: Multiple commercialization pathways
now exist for digital health tools. This expanded access offers
opportunities for developers to attain an economic return on
investment for those tools supported by robust evidence and user
demand. Four broad commercial models are now in place and being
used to pay or reimburse digital tool developers. Those models are
direct-to-consumer, value-based contracting, “device-like”
reimbursement and “drug-like” reimbursement models.
The full version of the report, including a detailed description
of the methodology, is available at www.IQVIAInstitute.org. The
study was produced independently as a public service, without
industry or government funding.
About the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science
The IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science contributes to the
advancement of human health globally through timely research,
insightful analysis and scientific expertise applied to granular
non-identified patient-level data.
Fulfilling an essential need within healthcare, the Institute
delivers objective, relevant insights and research that accelerate
understanding and innovation critical to sound decision making and
improved human outcomes. With access to IQVIA’s institutional
knowledge, advanced analytics, technology and unparalleled data,
the Institute works in tandem with a broad set of healthcare
stakeholders to drive a research agenda focused on Human Data
Science, including government agencies, academic institutions, the
life sciences industry, and payers. More information about the
IQVIA Institute can be found at www.IQVIAInstitute.org.
About IQVIA
IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) is a leading global provider of advanced
analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to
the life sciences industry. IQVIA creates intelligent connections
across all aspects of healthcare through its analytics,
transformative technology, big data resources and extensive domain
expertise. IQVIA Connected Intelligence™ delivers powerful insights
with speed and agility — enabling customers to accelerate the
clinical development and commercialization of innovative medical
treatments that improve healthcare outcomes for patients. With
approximately 72,000 employees, IQVIA conducts operations in more
than 100 countries.
IQVIA is a global leader in protecting individual patient
privacy. The company uses a wide variety of privacy-enhancing
technologies and safeguards to protect individual privacy while
generating and analyzing information on a scale that helps
healthcare stakeholders identify disease patterns and correlate
with the precise treatment path and therapy needed for better
outcomes. IQVIA’s insights and execution capabilities help biotech,
medical device and pharmaceutical companies, medical researchers,
government agencies, payers and other healthcare stakeholders tap
into a deeper understanding of diseases, human behaviors, and
scientific advances, in an effort to advance their path toward
cures. To learn more, visit www.iqvia.com.
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Nick Childs, IQVIA Investor Relations (Nchilds@us.imshealth.com)
+1.973.316.3828 Tor Constantino, IQVIA Media Relations
(tor.constantino@iqvia.com) +1.484.567.6732
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