“Make Healthcare Apps Engage”: Evidence From A Randomized Field Experiment
Title：“Make Healthcare Apps Engage”: Evidence From A Randomized Field Experiment
Speaker：Yuanyuan Dang（Harbin Institute of Technology, Ph.D. Candidate）
Host：Dr. Wang Shan (Lingnan College, Sun Yat-sen University, Assistant Professor)
Date and Time：July 3rd, 2020 (9:00am-10:30am)
Location： Zoom ID: 676 7089 7433 Password: 200622
Language： English + Chinese
Abstract:
With today’s technological advancements, mobile phones and wearable devices have become extensions of an increasingly diffused and smart digital infrastructure. In this paper, we examine the emerging mobile health (mHealth) platform and its health and economic impacts on the outcomes of diabetes patients and how to solve inherent problem of low usage. To do so, we partnered with a major mHealth firm that provides one of the largest mobile health app platforms in Asia, specializing in diabetes care, deploy different versions of the app mirroring the various experimental treatments to assess their efficacy in driving short-term and long-term usage levels. Results from our field experiment suggest that 1) mHealth technology can help patients self-regulate their health behavior; 2) monetary rewards and past usage information can be used to spur initial usage levels; 3)users exposed to the financial schemes do not have a sustained usage levels upon the removal of financial incentives. Motivated and health conscious users tend to respond more positively to these schemes.
