mHealth set to reshape delivery of US healthcare

London – Mobile Health (mHealth) can play a vital role in enhancing communication between healthcare providers and patients as well as enabling patients to take charge of their health and wellness. Already, innovative peripheral attachments are allowing smartphones to read and analyse patients' vital body data, diagnose disorders, and manage medication and chronic diseases. Given the complexity of the value chain, mHealth is attracting vendors from across the healthcare and information/communication technology markets. However, success will depend on the ability to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs while sustaining a competitive position in a dynamic and evolving ecosystem.

US mHealth Market and Growth Opportunity Analysis is part of Frost & Sullivan's Connected Health Growth Partnership Service Program that includes insights on hospital cybersecurity, telehealth, digital health and population health. This particular study reviews successful business models used to provide value among key customer segments and provides insight into the opportunities associated with key market segments and growth forecasts.

"Health plans, payers and providers are very interested in leveraging mHealth solutions to monitor or remotely treat complex cases and chronic conditions," says Transformational Health Principal Analyst Victor Camlek.He continues: "The significant opportunity will be to expand the domain of medical-grade mHealth to cover more conditions and include forms of self-care management that rely on medical-grade activity trackers coupled with round-the-clock connected health service access."

In order to sustain a competitive position, mHealth solution vendors must address implementation challenges including:

• Improving use cases for medical-grade programs, which will require FDA certification
• Low willingness-to-pay for mHeath services by consumers

Need for a common mHealth platform that is flexible, Web or mobile-based, device agnostic, secure and HIPAA compliant.

Apple, Validic, and Qualcomm life have adopted a data-in-a-platform approach by developing new products around user flexibility and interoperability. American Well, Teladoc, Zipnosis, Tactio, and Walgreens are examples of innovative companies driving the growth of new clinical care models over mobile.

"Health technology combined with personalized medical plans offers the potential to prevent the progression of some conditions becoming chronic," explains Camlek. "As such, cost-effective telehealth should create the proof of this concept over the next five to seven years driven in a large part by mHealth technologies."

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Source: Frost & Sullivan