Healthcare organizations are moving fast to embrace mobile apps, with 82 percent implementing a mobile strategy, and 78 percent achieving positive ROI from mobile app investments already, according to a new survey published by open source software specialist Red Hat.

In the coming year, Red Hat found, U.S. demand for patient-facing apps (60 percent) is expected to slightly outpace demand for internal efficiencies (59 percent) as a main motivation for developing healthcare apps.

The optimism engendered by the bullishness of healthcare IT leaders about mobile apps, however, is undercut by budget limitations. Respondents said they plan to increase their budgets by 15.5 percent to support development of 36 percent more apps in the next year.

“This disparity between investment growth and desired app volumes may not be achieved by developing mobile apps as one-off projects,” the Red Hat authors explained. “Rather, a modern platform-based approach that supports agile development and API-based architecture can help increase developer efficiency, reduce development costs, and support the increasing demand for mobile apps.”

Image pulled from original article.