mHealth has become a growing phenomenon within the healthcare industry. Society is increasingly dealing with an ageing population, an increase of ill health related to work and stress, and constraints on healthcare budgets. The way we monitor, store and learn to use our medication is changing but how quickly?
Why mHealth?
By using the powerful analytics healthcare apps can provide us with, digitally enabled care is almost becoming a necessity. For health and care services a single source is not enough anymore. A tech savvy population are in control of how they bank, eat, live and transport themselves. Yet diagnosing themselves and having information on hand to aid self-diagnoses is scarce. mHealth solutions present us with the ability to log information related to personal health at the touch of a screen. With over 100,000 health apps in the market and with a forecast of 1.7 billion downloads of mhealth app on iOS and Android by 2017, there is plenty of room for more apps with better and personalised outcomes.
The mHealth Market
Initially, the mobile health industry was a marketplace dominated by health and fitness apps such as MyFitnessPal or wearables such as Fitbit. However, the growth is now in remote consultation and monitoring. Now, mobile health apps can aid in the management of asthma, cancer and diabetes. In the UK alone, 4 out of 5 adults will have a smartphone and 70% of all older patients in the UK want to use digital healthcare. From 2014 to 2018 mHealth apps are predicted to grow by 35% in the UK alone. The growth of the mHealth industry is however not just restricted to the UK. Globally, between the same timeframe, there will be an estimated growth of 49%. In 2017 the market will account for over $23 Billion. By 2018, Europe will be the largest mobile health market in the world.
The mHealth industry is growing, diversifying and expectation is high. From health and fitness dominated apps, to a growth in remote monitoring and consultation. In an age where tech is the future and a single health and care service is not enough, this tech savvy population are taking matters into their own hands.
