Relevance
The importance of shared decision making in healthcare
We’ve seen a rapid increase in digital health tools use among individuals in the past few years, including mobile health apps. The most recent study indicates that more than 50% of smartphone or tablet owners are now using an app that targets a specific health condition or symptom (1, American users). Compared to 2 years prior, this is a 55% increase (2, Canadian users).
There's a lot to choose from, with over 300,000 health apps available. Little information is available to answer questions like: How can an app help me? Is it relevant to my health condition? Is it safe? What does my healthcare professional think?
You are not alone to ask yourself these questions
Some would like to have a recommendation from their doctor or healthcare professional. Others would like to have more information on the safety of tools (3, Accenture report). However, few patients & healthcare professionals discuss using a health app together.
Finding the best app for your health is feasible only if you can have an open discussion about your goals. The one person you trust and who can provide you with a solid and evidence-based opinion on these goals and the use of apps is your doctor or healthcare professional.
However, before AppGuide, there was no resource for patients and healthcare providers to make informed & shared decisions about whether to use a health app to track their health or act on their prioritized health objectives.
From now on, Doctors and other healthcare professionals may point you in the right direction by having access to the information you don’t, such as clinical studies performed on a given app, reimbursement by certain insurers and regulation status.
Doctors, we got your back
On top of teaching the use of Digital Health Tools in clinical settings at top-tier universities in Canada, we created an online resource for doctors to find reliable and updated information about the most relevant apps out there. Think of it as a “Up-to-Date” or a “Micromedex” for apps.
Since 2020, this resource is used by hundreds of care teams from Canada and the United States, and it is now available to all healthcare professionals united with the desire to answer every app-related question they receive from their patients. And even prescribe apps to their patients in relevant situations such as anxiety disorder and diabetes.
Feeling confident when it comes to Digital Health is only a few clicks away, thanks to the online resource we’ve been updating daily since 2020!
Ask us about how to access our platform for healthcare professionals!