Where We’re Heading: Mobile Health in the Future

The wave of mobile health (mHealth) has definitely been ridden by many in the past years. At least in terms of developers designing and building mobile-health applications. The numbers speak for themselves:

• 40.000 health and medicine related applications in App store alone. 43.689 (in July 2013), to be more exact, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.
• 100.000 health applications altogether in 2014, listed on both Apple and Android platforms, according to the Fourth Annual Study on mHealth app publishing by research2guidance.

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Most of the healthcare apps on the market today are wellness – management related, specifically focused on helping people lead a more healthy life. A mere 30% cover such functions as suggesting diagnosis, prompting prescriptions, remote monitoring, or medical data examination, all of which fall into a more serious medical category.

Generally, consumers and health organizations alike consider these healthcare apps useful, with functional benefits that can help one improve their quality of life, health and well-being. This explains the 500 million people estimated to have already used a health care mobile app by now. (FDA administration).

The mobile transformation that the health and medical industry undergoes shouldn’t really surprise anyone. After all, mobile and applications have surged to transform the healthcare system in a way similar to the transformation in mobile of the restaurant industry, the travel industry and many others too.

With mobile usage and new technologies driving lots of changes in the world, the potential benefits of health and medical related mobile applications are incessantly put forth by healthcare professionals and the like. Predictions are positive, and according to research2guidance, “smartphone applications will become the killer applications for mobile health solutions.” Some of the things to expect from the mobile health industry in the future, as follows:

• Healthcare mobile applications to go mainstream also in developing countries with the increase in mobile technology usage. (Vital Wave Consulting)
• Approximately half (46%) of healthcare professionals to integrate mobile apps into their practices within the next five years. (Research Now Group, Inc.)
• The mHealth app market to reach USD 26bn in 2017. (research2guidance)
• mHealth apps to improve patient outcome (46,2%), to improve prevention and education (43,4%), to reduce or slow down increase of healthcare costs (42,8%), to improve interaction between patients and doctors (42,6%). (research2guidance)
• The wearables market to have the highest business potential in the next five years. (research2guidance)

Quality and data security remain two of the most important aspects of healthcare mobile apps. Transparency of how an app uses information and quality and relevancy of content will have a huge impact on the mobile health industry in the future. The possibility to bring forth positive changes in the medical system exists; we only need to maximize the potential of mHealth solutions. To take things in the right direction.