A new IQVIA study aims to help providers recommend healthcare apps for their patients by ranking them for different clinical categories.
The authors noted there are over 318,000 health apps and 340 consumer wearable devices available worldwide. While general wellness apps account for the majority of health apps available to consumers, apps focused on health condition management now account for 40 percent of all apps and are continuing to grow.
The authors analyzed 571 published studies, including randomized trials, to rank the best apps in two areas of interest for providers. The first area ranked apps for prevention and wellness, which included apps for categories such as exercise, weight management, stress and smoking cessation. The second included top disease-management apps, such as those for cancer, diabetes, hypertension and asthma.
Here are the top five clinically rated apps for wellness and prevention and condition management, listed by category.
Top five wellness and prevention apps:
1. Exercise — Fitbit
2. Healthy eating and weight management — Noom Coach: Health & Weight
3. Stress management — Headspace
4. Smoking cessation — Clickotine
5. Alcohol moderation — Drinkaware
Top five condition management apps:
1. Alcohol and substance abuse — Pear reSET
2. Diabetes prevention — Omada
3. Diabetes — BlueStar Diabetes
4. Atrial fibrillation screening and dysrhythmias — Kardia
5. Hypertension — Twine - Collaborative Care