The number of consumer digital health apps ballooned last year, with more than 90,000 new ones introduced in 2020, according to a new report by the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science on digital health trends.

The report found there are now more than 350,000 digital health apps available to consumers. While many are geared toward general wellness or fitness, and some are middling in quality, specific disease management apps are increasing in number. 

Apps that focus on managing specific diseases or health conditions now make up 47% of apps, compared with 28% in 2015. Mental health, diabetes and cardiovascular disease-related apps make up almost half of condition-specific apps.

The report also identified a growth in digital therapeutics and digital care products, noting about 150 commercially available options. These products tend to focus on neurologic and psychiatric issues; about two-thirds of digital therapeutics and 40% of digital care products are used to treat those conditions.

Digital health tools are also the focus of growing clinical evidence research and lower barriers to adoption. The report found more than 2,000 studies on digital health app effectiveness have been published since 2007, with almost 1,500 published in the past five years.

“We are finding evidence of a growing maturity of digital health tools in mainstream medicine,” Murray Aitken, IQVIA senior vice president and executive director of the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, said in a statement. “While there has been a significant growth in apps and digital health tools since 2013, we are beginning to detect improved quality of the digital health tools in the management of health conditions. These quality improvements result in robust evidence of their impact on patient outcomes and subsequent inclusion in clinical practice.”

WHY IT MATTERS

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed patients and providers to adopt digital health tools as care moved outside the doctor’s office. 

The report found the crisis also affected the types of apps consumers were downloading. For example, downloads for the telehealth app Doximity increased 38 times in 2020. Exercise apps that could be used at home, mental health apps and blood pressure apps were popular during the pandemic too.

COVID-19 impacted the market for wearables as well. The report noted bumps in app downloads tied to devices that could measure oxygen saturation in the blood in regions where COVID-19 infections spiked.

THE LARGER TREND

Digital health investment is hitting record-breaking numbers so far in 2021. In Q1, MobiHealthNews reported 99 digital health fundings worth $7.1 billion, a big leap over 2020’s Q1, which raked in $2.9 billion.

Q2 saw another 99 deals worth $6.2 billion, still easily beating last year.

Rock Health’s quarterly report on digital health funding found digital health has received $14.7 billion in funding halfway through the year, already more than 2020’s full-year amount.

“We’ve seen continued investor interest in on-demand models, comprehensive primary care, behavioral health, fitness and prevention,” William Greineisen, director of strategy and corporate development for Cox Enterprises, said in the report. “But what’s most refreshing to us is the sheer number of deals happening. It’s a great sign for the industry at large.”