Parks Associates digital health research tracker service identifies innovative leaders and growth strategies for digital health solutions

Parks Associates announced new health research this week during the Connected Health Symposium, showing that 42% of smartphone/tablet owners use at least one fitness app and these app owners are more avid users of wellness tracking and management features and services. Parks Associates research, from a 2Q 2016 consumer survey, shows that 45% of fitness app users log food and calories and 18% of them join coaching sessions online or via the app. Their usage rates are twice as high as the general population. In addition, more than one-third of fitness app adopters use two or more fitness apps.

“Adoption of connected wellness and fitness devices has climbed steadily, and more consumers have embraced mobile fitness/wellness apps through connected devices or by using their smartphone,” said Harry Wang, Senior Research Director, Parks Associates. “Device makers and app developers are investing to deepen their relationship with consumers and provide more immersive app experiences via advanced features such as coaching.”

The IoT research firm notes that increasing adoption of connected health and wellness solutions should have a ripple effect in expanding consumer interest and acceptance of healthcare innovations in institutional settings and on the consumer market.

“Over the last two years, Parks Associates has witnessed a strong surge in interest from health systems, insurers, and their affiliates to develop patient engagement strategies and capabilities in areas such as patient education and outreach, health benefit navigation and care transparency, convenient on-demand and virtual care solutions, new-generation care management solutions, and fitness and wellness services,” Wang said. “We identified more than 100 breakout players in these five areas in our recently released Tracker Innovator Leaderboard and Winning Strategies and highlighted companies such as Emmi Solutions, Maxwell Health, MDLIVE, Vivify Health, and Virgin Pulse as Disruptive Front-Runners in our Innovator Leaderboard matrix.”

Parks Associates is supporting the Connected Health Symposium, October 20-21, in Boston. The Connected Health Symposium is an international conference that promotes innovative thinking and the application of personal consumer health technologies to support new models of care delivery.

New connected health research from Parks Associates includes the following:

360 View Update: Connected Health Devices and Apps: Quantifying the “Quantified Self” provides consumer research and insights on the adoption, use, and future intentions of wellness/fitness and medical/health devices.

Health Tracker — Digital Disruptions: Innovator Leaderboard and Winning Strategies is part of Parks Associates’ Connected Health Tracker Service. This Tracker identifies the digital health innovators as well as market strategies to engage consumers in use of digital health technologies.

More information about this research is available at www.parksassociates.com. To schedule an interview with an analyst or to request specific data, contact Holly Sprague at hsprague@gmail.com, 720.987.6614.

About Parks Associates

Parks Associates, a woman-founded and certified business, is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates provides business intelligence and research services through its proprietary methodologies developed over decades, including quarterly surveys of 10,000 internet households.

The company's expertise crosses many industries: home security and smart home, streaming video, broadband and pay-TV services, digital media and platforms, gaming, Wi-Fi and home networks, connected health, support, consumer electronics, home control systems, energy management, and tech solutions for the multi-dwelling (MDU), small-to-medium business (SMB), and commercial building markets.

Each year, Parks Associates brings thousands of leaders together for its webinars and annual events. The firm hosts the annual executive research and strategy conferences CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. https://www.parksassociates.com

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