Start Date

11-8-2016

Description

Mobile health applications (apps) are enabling health care service delivery through access to patients beyond service walls. A number of apps have emerged that help patients regarding information on diseases, treatment regimes, and taking informed decisions on health management. To sustain an app in the market, questions such as what functionalities influence a patient’s decision to use and evaluate the apps needs to be answered. A benchmark for sustained app use is the impact that the current evaluation has on the decision of the future users. This study explores the differential impact of effectiveness of health apps on patient evaluation change per week. Further, how the relationship between effectiveness and evaluation change differs across different app-functionalities and service appeal are explored. A dataset of 2,292 apps were used to conduct empirical analysis. We find that patients evaluate certain functionalities higher than others. Managerial and research contributions are also discussed.

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Aug 11th, 12:00 AM

The Role of Effectiveness, Appeal and Functionality on Evaluation of Health Apps

Mobile health applications (apps) are enabling health care service delivery through access to patients beyond service walls. A number of apps have emerged that help patients regarding information on diseases, treatment regimes, and taking informed decisions on health management. To sustain an app in the market, questions such as what functionalities influence a patient’s decision to use and evaluate the apps needs to be answered. A benchmark for sustained app use is the impact that the current evaluation has on the decision of the future users. This study explores the differential impact of effectiveness of health apps on patient evaluation change per week. Further, how the relationship between effectiveness and evaluation change differs across different app-functionalities and service appeal are explored. A dataset of 2,292 apps were used to conduct empirical analysis. We find that patients evaluate certain functionalities higher than others. Managerial and research contributions are also discussed.