Healthcare apps are now part of how many people find, manage, and share health information. In the United States, 63.4% of adults had used a mobile health app in the previous year in 2023, while app-based access to online medical records reached 57% of portal users in 2024. The figures below show how adoption, patient-portal access, desired features, and implementation concerns fit together.
Table of contents
- Healthcare app adoption
- The shift from web portals to apps
- Who has access to digital records
- What patients want from healthcare apps
- How often people use health apps
- How many apps people use
- Barriers to digital patient solutions
Healthcare app adoption
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) reported that 63.4% of U.S. adults had used a mobile health app in the past year in 2023. This is a measure of annual use, not necessarily daily engagement or use of a clinical app provided by a healthcare organization.
The potential app ecosystem is broad. An NCCIH report estimated that more than 350,000 mobile apps provided health information in 2021. That estimate describes the size of the health-information app landscape at the time; it should not be read as a current count or as a count of apps with the same clinical purpose.
Together, these figures describe both sides of the market: substantial consumer reach and a very large supply of health-information products. They do not establish that every app is equally reliable, clinically integrated, or appropriate for a particular health decision.
The shift from web portals to apps
Access to online medical records has increasingly moved toward mobile apps. According to ASTP Data Brief No. 77, the share of portal users accessing records by app rose from 38% in 2020 to 57% in 2024. That is a 19-percentage-point increase across the period.
Web-only access moved in the opposite direction. The share using web-only access fell from 60% in 2020 to 42% in 2024, an 18-percentage-point decline. In the intermediate 2022 measurement, 51% used app access and 48% used web-only access.
| Access method among portal users | 2020 | 2022 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| App access | 38% | 51% | 57% |
| Web-only access | 60% | 48% | 42% |
| Did not know how records were accessed | 2% | 1% | 2% |
The same ASTP brief found that 2% of portal users in 2024 said they did not know how they accessed their records. The comparable shares were 2% in 2020 and 1% in 2022. App and web-only percentages describe reported access modes, while the “did not know” category captures uncertainty about the route used.
Who has access to digital records
The availability of online records has also expanded. ONC HealthIT reported that the share of individuals offered online access to their medical records increased from 42% in 2014 to 77% in 2024. The share who were both offered access and accessed their patient portal increased from 25% to 65% over the same years.
Caregiver and proxy access grew as well, rising from 24% in 2020 to 51% in 2024, according to ONC HealthIT. This matters for people who help manage care, although the statistic measures access rather than the quality or frequency of that support.
In 2024, access differed among people managing specific health circumstances:
- 81% of individuals with a chronic condition were offered online access to their medical records, and 69% accessed their records at least once during the previous year.
- 86% of individuals managing a recent cancer diagnosis were offered online access, and 76% accessed their records at least once during the previous year.
These are 2024 U.S. measurements. “Offered access” and “accessed at least once” are separate measures, so the percentages should not be treated as interchangeable indicators of ongoing app engagement.
Access points are distributed across different parts of the healthcare system. ASTP Data Brief No. 77 reported that, in 2024, 68% of individuals had an online medical record or patient portal with their primary care provider’s office. The corresponding shares were 40% for another healthcare provider, 30% for an insurer, 29% for a clinical laboratory, 24% for a pharmacy, and 22% for a hospital. Only 16% reported having no online medical records or patient portals.
What patients want from healthcare apps
The Medisafe State of Digital Patient Solutions 2024 survey asked patients about benefits digital solutions should provide. Among patients, the most frequently selected capabilities in the supplied results were tracking appointments at 49%, scheduling tele-health appointments at 43%, tracking measurements at 42%, and managing refills at 42%.
Other requested capabilities included arranging rides to medical appointments at 29%, daily journal features at 29%, educational resources about disease at 29%, and sending reports to doctors or healthcare professionals at 12%.
The same survey also reported a separate “key benefit” measure for all respondents. Its results were not identical to the patient-only capability results:
| Key benefit selected | Share of all respondents |
|---|---|
| Track appointments | 40% |
| Schedule tele-health appointments | 39% |
| Send reports to doctors or HCPs | 37% |
| Allow family or friend caregiver monitoring | 37% |
| Arrange rides to medical appointments | 49% |
| Patient coach or community | 42% |
| Track health measurements | 21% |
| Identify drug interactions | 26% |
| Manage medication refills | 19% |
| Arrange medication home delivery | 20% |
The survey also recorded smaller shares for financial assistance or co-pay support at 17%, educational resources about disease at 26%, daily journaling at 14%, and medication-adherence tracking at 5%. Because the survey uses different respondent groups and question labels, patient capability preferences should be kept separate from the all-respondent key-benefit results.
How often people use health apps
The Medisafe 2024 survey found that 31% of patients used smartphone apps for their health journey more than once a day. Another 19% used health apps once a day, 23% used them weekly, and 21% used them monthly.
These frequency categories describe reported patient behavior in that survey. They do not mean that every use involved a medical-record portal, medication management, tele-health, or another particular function.
The distribution indicates that health-app engagement is not limited to one pattern. Some patients use apps repeatedly throughout the day, while others return monthly. For healthcare guides, that distinction is useful: an app designed for frequent tracking has different practical demands from one used mainly for occasional records access or appointment planning.
How many apps people use
Most patients in the Medisafe 2024 survey reported using one or two smartphone apps to track their health journey. Specifically, 49% used one app and 28% used two. A further 17% used three apps, 3% used four, and 2% used five or more.
The portal landscape shows a related need for consolidation. ASTP Data Brief No. 77 reported that 7% used a portal organizing app to combine medical information from different portals in 2024. In 2022, only 2% used one. Among people with multiple records, portal-organizing-app use was 5% in 2022 and 7% in 2024.
The growth in organizing-app use does not show that all records were successfully unified, nor does it identify which providers or data types were combined. It does show that a measurable share of users sought a way to bring information from separate portals together.
Barriers to digital patient solutions
The Medisafe State of Digital Patient Solutions 2024 survey identified security concerns as the most frequently selected obstacle, at 37%. Patient engagement and retention followed at 28%, while integration with existing systems was selected by 27%.
Other reported obstacles included regulations at 23%, cost versus return on investment at 21%, legal issues at 20%, company politics at 19%, and adoption by healthcare professionals at 19%. Lack of customization was selected by 16%, patient recruitment by 15%, time to market by 13%, scalability by 12%, building in-house versus partnering by 6%, and other obstacles by 4%.
These results place technical and organizational concerns alongside patient-facing needs. Security is not merely a product feature in the survey; it is the leading reported obstacle. Integration is also distinct from app popularity: an app may be used by patients while still facing challenges connecting with existing healthcare systems.
For readers comparing healthcare apps, the available statistics point to several concrete questions: whether the app supports the task they need, whether it connects to the relevant provider or portal, how often they expect to use it, and how access is shared with caregivers. The figures also show why app-based care should be evaluated by function and context rather than by download or adoption claims alone.