Cigna and Samsung have announced a partnership geared toward co-developing health content for the Samsung S Health app, which debuted with the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.
With this move, Cigna joins the ranks of many insurers that are looking to drive down costs by helping policyholders to get healthier. Mobile health apps, when deployed with behavior change principles in mind, can be an effective way to help policyholders to improve their lifestyles.
According to Pew, about 19 percent of smartphone users currently have health apps, and the number of health app users is projected to reach 500 million by 2015.
S Health uses the S4 and connected devices to keep track of users' health and fitness stats. For example, users can purchase Samsung's connected Body Scale, S Band or HRM (heart rate monitor) to track their weight, activity and sleep stats, and heart rate, respectively. Each device syncs automatically with the S4 to record user stats within the S Health app.
While insurers like Cigna are putting their money into the mobile app basket, research also indicates that health apps haven't quite become the behavior change catalysts that developers, insurers and healthcare providers want them to be. According to analyst Denise Culver of Pyramid Research, about 26 percent of people who download health apps use them only once.
Dr. B.J. Fogg of Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab, in a recent Medscape.com interview, noted that researchers have found that few mobile health apps demonstrate a scientific foundation. Also, few seem to have been designed with the help of a physician.
Fogg says that developers and cognitive scientists need to work together to design apps that actually promote real behavior change. "Content is frankly irrelevant," said Fogg. "It's all about behavior. I don't think it's a content issue. It's more about the experience, and making behavior change easy to do."
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
