Improving Health Systems: There Is No App for That.

Abstract

Healthcare apps generally do not offer a coordinated strategy that aligns incentives among payers and patients, nor do apps solve underlying structural economic problems of sustainability, quality or equity. The economics of payers demand pilot testing; evidence-based research and iterative design; sustained communications to patients with the most need; and slow, careful integration that coordinates the needs of all participants. An integrated social systems app model can take the pressure off a stressed system.