How the rapid expansion of IoT in healthcare is transforming the mHealth landscape

The number of smartphone users have already surpassed a staggering 2 billion mark, and it is hard to ignore the potential of mHealth with such advancements in technology. World over the mobile health market will reach $49 billion by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 48% from 2013 to 2020 according to Grand View Research. Rising number of chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes together with aging population are driving the market space along with new connected medical devices. Lack of healthcare providers coupled with expanding rural population could make the Asia Pacific market to take lead in this growth, predicts the research study while North America will still hold a significant market share due to an increase in smartphone adoption. Top mHealth apps influence patient behavior a great deal and are staring to make significant difference in terms of patient satisfaction and preventive care. World over approximately top 10 mHealth apps generate 4.3 million downloads per day; 80% of physicians use smartphones and mHealth apps while 43% of them use mobile health technology for clinical purposes and 93% of physicians believe there is value having mHealth app these days. An overwhelming percentage of patients still tend to keep a pile of medical papers of their personal health information, which unfortunately they find it hard to trace when they actually need them. Given a choice, most of senior citizens would prefer to live independently, free of worries, in an assisted living environment or retirement community. To a large extent, a digitalized personal health maintenance platform provides remedy for a healthcare consumer by making credible and authentic information accessible anytime! With a push of button, you can get a desired service delivered to your home like medication refill, blood sample collection, homecare services, etc. Oftentimes, while caring for a chronically ill parent or grandparent, caregivers especially the children undergo great amount of emotional toll and physical exhaustion for want of their physical presence with them for various support needs. A smart health management platform allows them to monitor and stay connected with their loved ones while they get on with their chosen career. Therefore, mobile health platforms allow faster, more streamlined and meaningful communication between all members of the healthcare ecosystem from both the clinical and remote settings. As a result, it brings about an overall improvement in patients’ lifestyle and adherence with physician instructions, and subsequently a chance for an improved clinical outcome and quality of life.