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Included in this roundup of what pharmaceutical companies are doing in the mobile space are mobile health app download figures, Epocrates’ user growth, pharma mobile sites and a new iPhone app from Janssen.
Janssen has launched an ADHD-focused iPhone app for parents to track how their child’s day has been. ‘How’s Today Been?’ (pictured above) allows parents to record how attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects their child and family life. Developed by Aurora Healthcare Communications, it is part of Janssen’s Living With ADHD campaign and aims to build a picture for parents and their child’s doctor of what times of the day are most challenging.
Downloads of mobile health apps are predicted to reach 44 million next year, according to Juniper Research, who say numbers could hit 142 million by 2016. The analysts’ mHealth white paper says the current range of apps, which encompasses everything from patient diaries to medical calculators to monitoring applications, will be greatly extended over time with the development of hardware peripherals that can be attached to smartphones.
Epocrates’ mobile drug reference app has now been used by more than 1.4 million healthcare professionals, including over 340,000 or more than 50 per cent of US doctors, according to a recent SEC filing. The company also revealed plans to develop a series of a websites to host promotional content and applications from pharma and a series of customised iPhone and iPad medical apps.
Mobile is making an important contribution to improving European health, according to a new report by GSM World. The report by the mobile operators’ association says mobile is enabling remote health services and helping protect vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly. It also cites a number of, often low tech, examples of mHealth in action, including SMS reminders for medical and vaccination appointment from Mobiltel Bulgaria.
Finally, pharma companies’ growing use of smartphone apps often obscures their reluctance to produce mobile versions of their websites. But the ranks of these – essentially Boehringer Ingelheim, Shire and Pfizer – were joined recently by Bayer, whose US operations now have a mobile website, which can be accessed through a mobile device here.
