One of the most promising areas for social innovation through web and mobile applications is health. We’re spending a larger and larger share of our wealth on healthcare, and it threatens to bust the government’s budget. So apps like RunKeeper, that offer an avenue for users to lead healther lives, have major social potential.

But earlier this week, Kanyi Maqubela, an entrepreneur-in-residence at Collaborative Fund, had a piece at The Atlantic questioning whether Silicon Valley-types can create apps that address real health challenges, rather than just marginally improve the lifestyles of health addicts:

According to research at the John D. And Catherine MacArthur Foundation, “a large body of evidence indicates that socioeconomic status is a strong predictor of health. Better health is associated with having more income, more years of education, and a more prestigious job, as well as living in neighborhoods where a higher percentage of residents have higher incomes and more education.”

…the early-adopter elite often have more spending power as well, and so many consumer web products are aligned with the mentality of ‘innovating for the elite’. But when it comes to healthcare innovation, this wisdom fails.

It’s an interesting question, so I passed it along to Sarah Hodges at RunKeeper since this is something they’re thinking about [Update 3/16/12 5:16pm: she’s since left the company to pursue another project].

Here’s an excerpt from her response:

We’re extremely cognizant of the diversity of our user base; we have over 9 million users, over 70% of whom reside outside the US, and their fitness levels range from beginner runners to dedicated triathletes to people who want to lose weight and stay fit. They cross socio-economic categories and have varying levels familiarity with technology. We continue to refine our product with this community in mind, but are also encouraged by how our Health Graph API partners are able to complement our core offering to provide added value and a broad array of options that speak to very different users.

There are two responses to Maqubela that I think ultimately address his (interesting) concern that are both tied into Hodges’s response. The first is simply that this is a challenge businesses face all the time. You might start by building a product for people just like yourself, but if you’re going to grow, you’re going to have to build something that appeals to a broader user base. So this isn’t specifically a health app problem; it’s just a generic business problem.

The second, which Hodges notes, is that an API totally changes the equation. Even if Maqubela is right that super healthy people aren’t great at building apps to, say, deal with obesity, the existence of the RunKeeper API means anyone can build on top of their HealthGraph.

So while RunKeeper might currently appeal most strongly to health and exercise fanatics, I’m optimistic that their HealthGraph can benefit a much wider audience.