With the expansion of wireless technology, more and more people are using it to manage their health. Each year, tens of thousands of people purchase health-related mobile applications, and that number is only expected to continue growing, according to recent research by Frost & Sullivan on the mHealth industry.
"Today, we are seeing the tip of the iceberg in the U.S. mHealth market's potential," said Zachary Bujnoch, senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "MHealth will continue on a steep growth curve as increasingly sophisticated mobile technologies and relationship-management tools disrupt the market."
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| Source: Frost & Sullivan |
Wireless technology is an especially good fit for health-related issues, according to the research. First of all, wireless networks are increasingly ubiquitous as are wireless devices. Mobile applications are suited to everything from tracking fitness to reminding a patient about daily medication to managing chronic diseases. There are also mobile programs that help people stop smoking, send out regional allergy alerts, and measure heart rate.
On a managed-care level, wireless programs can also perform diagnostic monitoring tasks. Wireless devices are also an important part of the growing telehealth industry, allowing patients to remain at home while being monitored under professional medical supervision.
But while managed-care mHealth applications are growing, it is the consumer-type applications, including the smoking-cessation and allergy alert programs, that have the largest potential to expand.
"Consumer mHealth applications are going to outpace managed-care applications in terms of quantity of installations," said Ofer Atzmon, Vice President for Business Development and Marketing at Aerotel Medical Systems. "However, the revenue from managed care applications will be much bigger due to their higher costs."
The New Year brings with it new forecasts concerning the future of the mobile application (mHealth) market. While both two reports reflect the same growth trend, the strength of the change varies substantially. The difference between the two researches can stem from using different methodologies, but also from the difficulties arising from trying to predict market trends for new technologies that integrate elements from different industries.
Earnings of the mHealth app market are expected to rise to $392 million from $230 million in 2010, according to a report published by research company Frost & Sullivan.
"From 2008 to 2010 mHealth consistently outpaced forecast growth and revenue," said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Zachary Bujnoch. "mHealth apps will continue on a steep growth curve as increasingly sophisticated mobile technologies and relationship-management tools disrupt the market."
Bujnoch added that today, we are seeing the tip of the iceberg in the U.S. mHealth market's potential as mobile apps are the single-biggest digital channel since the '90s and the Web.
Meanwhile, a separate report published by research2guidance estimates that the mHealth apps market was worth some $718 million in 2011.
The report, entitled "Mobile Health Market Report 2011-2016" claims that the smartphone application market for mobile healthcare is still in an embryonic state despite its huge potential. The authors noted, however, that during the course of 2011 the mHealth market grow very fast following the increase in the usage of smartphones and the doubling of the number of mHealth applications.
"A majority of the big healthcare companies have discovered mHealth applications as an innovative way to promote and deliver healthcare services and products," research2guidance analysts noted. "A testament to this is that a number of these large players published mHealth apps in 2011 that go far beyond a simple allergy tracker or pill reminder, e.g. Sanofi Aventis' sensor-based iBGStar Diabetis monitoring app."
