DeepWell DTx reposted this
Out of 350,000 health and wellness apps, only 20 have been FDA cleared as Digital Therapeutics. Here an app, there an app, everywhere a wellness app… As reported in Nature Magazine, Apple and Google dominate the provision of apps through the ‘Apple App Store’ and the ‘Google Play Store’ respectively, accounting for around 92% of the mobile app distribution business. The number of health and wellness apps available in the app store has been estimated at 350,000 apps worldwide with as many as 90,000 new health apps added in 2020 alone. The FDA emergency order allowed a lot of leeway in what could be marketed as a digital therapeutic, but that time has passed. We are now seeing a major divide between the DTx cleared by the agency and the vast array of health apps and games available on these major stores. Typically there is no doctor support or reimbursement for medical products that are not cleared, a reality that greatly impacts accessibility of care. We are going to need a way of accelerating this process to have any hope of reaching the billions of people struggling with their mental health. #mentalhealth #physicalhealth #digitaltherapeutics #reimbursement Reference Article: https://lnkd.in/gBMvUhqY
I really wish the FTC had the resources to actively pursue those who make claims about their products. It seems like there’s a tsunami of products that will cure everything.
Thank you for sharing this and including the citation! I have been looking for stats on the number of wellness apps and the number of evaluated apps for quite some time - it is surprisingly difficult to find this information.
With all the wellness apps.. it gets confusing. Which one is best for me? I hear of folks trying rings and watches that track sleep, basal body temperature, exercise, etc. meditation apps, and many others. It will be nice to see what apps are vetted so the process is less overwhelming.
Furthermore there is a fatigue with insurers, doctors, employers and even end users as all digital health apps en masse have a 9% adherence rate. Most do not work as one needs to be good at optimizing towards this for starters to even think about driving better outcomes.
Perhaps more diligence is needed on the part of other wellness apps? Certainly we know how much went into DeepwellDTx.
I love how many people are finding these useful (if not life-changing!). You're spot on with the accessibility (financial and actual physical access). How can we help change that?
350,000?? That’s an overwhelming amount of choices. Would be nice to know which ones have the ability to actually help when on the store.
Thank you for sharing this
Executive Vice President, Communications - BC Hockey
2moThe exciting part of this is that people want DTx. There is a market tonhelp ppl get better through this medium. There just needs to be a clearer indication of which are FDA approved devices and which are “roll the dice” apps.