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CHICAGO—Approximately 200,000 health apps are available through major app stores. Some offer real benefits, said Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai Health System, Los Angeles, Calif. But most, he told attendees at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, are “rubbish.”
“They do one or two things only—and generally not well,” he said. Health technology and apps work when they are attuned to patient needs, do not overwhelm people with alerts and are complex or subtle enough to weave into a person’s life. Most don’t do these things, he said.
How to figure out what works? Some—but not much—research is available.