The mobile healthcare market is gaining greater interest from toolmakers, municipalities, health payers and service providers as well as consumers, and expanding into new territory way beyond health monitoring and tracking. Remote diagnostics, telecare, intuitive products and intelligent infrastructure will be the norm by 2020.
That's the prediction of new research from research firm Compass Intelligence that expects increased virtualization technology, more mobile apps and convergence among vendors that will lead to new business models, help reduce research and development costs and speed product time to market
"Design, development and manufacturing techniques will revolve around productivity, cost, value creation, and product time-to-market," the report's authors write.
But that doesn't mean there won't be a mountain of challenges to hurdle.
"The mHealth market is wrought with challenges due to the regulatory, privacy concerns, and other risks," states Lavanya Rammohan, senior analyst at Compass Intelligence, in an announcement.
App developers, medical facilities and health payer organizations are developing and piloting new mHealth tools, from body fluid monitoring using smartphones to Google Glass adoption to apps that streamline medical facility operations. Yet medical practitioners aren't embracing mobile tools as fast due to regulatory and security concerns.
While wireless players are driving a good portion of new mobile tech, as smart sensors and embedded devices are pushed into the marketplace, the report finds they won't play a leading role down the road.
"Wireless carriers have put the stake in the ground in this market but based on our research, many end users do not believe that wireless carriers will dominate the market in the future," noted Rammohan in the announcement.
The report notes several factors fostering growth in mHealth products, including the demand to reduce healthcare costs for both providers and patients and the demand for telemedicine services.
"The mHealth market potential has encouraged wireless carriers, MVNOs, technology, and hardware providers to steadily focus on this market, which is helping to increase market adoption," adds Lavanya in the announcement. "As a result, there is increasing usage of smartphones and other sophisticated electronic devices that have increased efficiency and productivity of mHealth apps and products."
For more information:
- read the announcement from Compass Intelligence
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