There are thousands of smartphone health and wellbeing apps on the market, many of them part of our daily lives. Some are more useful than others.
Medibank has launched three apps in the past twelve months, two for general use and one for Medibank members, and has just researched how they are being used.
"Our analytics and user profiles have some interesting things to say about the type of health information and connectivity people want from a health insurer," says Alex Young, Medibank's Channel Manager, Mobile & Social, Digital Sales & Service.
"For example, our growth in members lodging claims electronically through our internet or smartphone systems has increased 92.5% year on year. Our apps are obviously resonating with members who want immediate and effective tools to be more proactive in looking after themselves and managing their health insurance," he adds.
A typical Medibank app user, for example:
- Most frequently checks their medical symptoms between 8 and 11 at night.
- Most regularly monitors alcohol, burgers and chocolate for their energy intake.
- If they are a member, they most often look at their claims history or use the app to make a claim.
The Medibank apps are:
Medibank Symptom Checker - one of the most downloaded apps in the iTunes App Store Medical category, which spent a number of weeks at the top of the Medical apps category on its release in 2011. It helps users identify symptoms and decide what to do, from providing advice on caring for minor injuries and illnesses to recommending medical help. The symptoms most often checked are abdominal pain, headache, cough, sore throat and back pain.
Energy Balancer helps users assess and better manage their energy intake/output ratio, by advising how much of a specific exercise one needs to do to burn off certain foods.
The Medibank Mobile app helps facilitate members' insurance claims, provides a claims history and lists providers in a range of medical and health categories.
"Feedback from customers has been very valuable in better understanding how we can improve our apps," says Alex Young. "We look forward to developing increasingly useful and interactive functionality for our members."