A survey by US health consultancy Medullan found, surprisingly, that nearly one in five healthcare organisations is engaged on a mobile health initiative without having a clear reason for doing it. The survey, which was conducted between April and July this year, asked 106 healthcare providers, insurers and other organisations in the sector what was their primary business driver for embarking on a mobile health project.

The response from 19 percent of organisations was that they lacked a driver. Of the remaining 81 percent who did articulate a motivation, 17 per cent said encouraging greater engagement from their users was the prime reason, the most popular response from those who actually had a driver. Pressure of competition (15 percent), the search for improved health outcomes (14 percent), a desire for user retention (13 percent), cost savings (12 percent) and brand/marketing (10 percent) were the other motivations.

Motivation changes with company size. For those companies with over 5,000 employees  the lack of a driver was the most prevalent answer. But for those companies with between 1,000 and 5,000 employees, the main motivation was increased engagement with users. For small companies (those with fewer than 1,000 employees), cost saving was the main factor behind embracing mobile health.

Ahmed Albaiti, Medullan’s CEO, said the firm was “surprised that so many organisations would undertake mhealth initiatives without a clear driver”, according to a press release. “While we believe strongly in the value of mhealth initiatives, no driver and no objectives is a recipe for disaster,” he said. The impression the firm got from the survey was that there is a lot of activity around mhealth but many companies “are spinning their wheels, and need some focus”, said Albaiti.

Among those looking for greater focus are pharmaceutical firms among who the most popular answer among 33 percent of respondents was a lack of motivation behind their mhealth strategy. Brand/marketing came a distant second. Meanwhile health insurers appear to know what they want with cost savings and the pressure of competition both reasons behind their mobile health strategies. No insurer selected “no driver”.