{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.025617566331198535, 'fraction_numerical': 0.011436413540713633, 'mean_word_length': 4.975409836065574, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Patient-facing mobile apps: Are ObGyns uniquely positioned to integrate them into practice?

Incorporating mobile apps into patient care programs can add immense value. Mobile apps enable data collection when a patient is beyond the walls of a doctor’s office and equip clinicians with new and relevant patient data. Patient engagement apps also provide a mechanism to “nudge” patients to encourage adherence to their care programs. These additional data and increased patient adherence can enable more personalized care, and ultimately can lead to improved outcomes. For example, a meta-analysis of 1,657 patients with diabetes showed a 5% reduction in hemoglobin A 1c (HbA 1c ) values for those who used a diabetes-related app. The literature also shows positive results for heart failure, weight management, smoking reduction, and lifestyle improvement. Given their value, why aren’t patient engagement apps more routinely integrated into patient care programs? From a software development perspective, mobile apps are fairly easy to create. However, from a user retention standpoint, creating an app with a large, sustainable userbase is challenging. User retention is measured in monthly active users. We are familiar with unused apps collecting digital dust on our smartphone home screens. A 2019 study showed that 25% of people typically use an application only once, and health care apps are not an exception. There are hundreds of thousands of mobile health apps on the market, but only 7% of these applications have more than 50,000 monthly active users. Further, 62% of digital health apps have less than 1,000 monthly active users. Using a new app daily or several times weekly requires new habit formation. Anyone who has tried to incorporate a new routine into their daily life knows how difficult habit formation can be. However, ObGyn patients may be particularly well suited to incorporate ObGyn-related apps into their care, given how many women already use mobile applications to track their menstrual cycles. A recent survey found that across all age Ms. Banashefski is a first-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.