WHITEPAPER Healthcare in the Palm of your Hand This whitepaper is an extract from: Mobile Healthcare Opportunities Monitoring, Applications & mhealth Strategies 2010-2015... information you can do business with
Healthcare in the Palm of your Hand Introduction If the worldwide health system is not in crisis, it is under intense pressure and cost cutting trends in the light of the global downturn are only set to continue. For most hospitals and medical establishments budget allocations for IT were expected to be smaller in 2009 than in 2008. Meanwhile the disease burden is increasing year on year on the back of aging populations and unhealthy lifestyles. In 57 countries, most of them in Africa and Asia, there is a severe health workforce crisis says WHO, which estimates that at least a further 2.36 million health service providers and 1.89 million management support workers are needed. This amounts to a total deficit, according to the WHO, of 4.25 million health workers. Given the above, mhealth in its various guises has great potential to increase the productivity of the worldwide health sector and bring about significant cost savings if operators and medical establishments can get it right. The applications below are plotted in the table below to indicate their ease of implementation against their potential to save cost to government or healthcare organisation. Such cost savings may be direct (as in the case of remote monitoring using mobile technologies saving hospital beds, or SMS based reminders reducing appointment no shows ) or long term and indirect, as in the case of education programs via SMS reducing behaviour that may lead to the spread of disease. Reducing Healthcare Costs using mhealth The figure below identifies the various mhealth use cases in the context of their potential to reduce cost to the healthcare sector both immediately and long term. Patient record keeping Page 1 Juniper Research +44 1256 830002
initiatives, for example, are relatively complex to implement, while offering cost savings below that of other activities such as SMS based education programs and appointment reminders. These are relatively easy to implement and can save significant healthcare costs. In the case of both short range and mobile health monitoring the cost savings are significant, but so too is the complexity of deployment. Figure 1: mhealth Use Cases and Their Ability to Reduce Healthcare Costs Difficult Health monitoring using mobile technologies Remote diagnosis Development/ Ease of implementation Health monitoring using short range wireless technologies Patient record keeping Information based smartphone Apps Advanced smartphone Apps SMS based appointment reminders SMS based education programs Easy Low Cost saving potential High Source: Juniper Research The chart above however does not tell the complete story. With the exception of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives, which have an altruistic motive, successful services need to show a return to those offering them, otherwise their roll-out will be limited. In addition some applications are specific to certain markets. SMS based education programs are common in developing nations, though there are some developed world examples, while mobile based monitoring programs are confined to developed markets, indeed largely North America. mhealth Applications There are now some 5000 mobile fitness and healthcare applications across a range of application stores notably Apples App store and the application store offered by RIM. Most healthcare Apps provide health information to professionals or end users, while fitness Apps are available to measure calorie intake or measure distance travelled for those running, for example. Page 2 Juniper Research +44 1256 830002
Designed primarily for health care professionals, Epocrates, for example, has a history of providing medical industry software. Epocrates is essentially a mobile drug reference resource offering access to thousands of drugs with included dosing information and adverse reactions. Users can also check drug interactions with up to 30 other drugs and see images of medications. Another example of a healthcare App is the Johnson & Johnson CareConnector iphone app. This app is designed to help users organise and manage information that is critical to have on hand when visiting the doctor. The application can also be used on behalf of a child or elderly relative. The app involves registering social security number, health-insurance carrier, policy number and allergic reactions. The app also allows users to track prescriptions and their side effects. Advanced Mobile Apps It is Juniper s belief that in time third party equipment will become available to link up to the application to provide semi professional itmp is one startup that was early to market with a peripheral device for the iphone: SM HeartLink, is a wireless bridge that can collect data from wireless sensors like heart rate chest straps or cycling sensors on bikes and send them to an iphone for display and tracking. Wireless remote monitoring company MedApps looks to be integrating its system with Smartphones, including the iphone perhaps as soon as next year. Most wireless sensor start-ups, including Corventis, Sotera Wireless and Proteus Biomedical have all indicated that their sensors would interface with an application on the iphone. Those start-ups are not pursuing a consumer health market strategy initially, but many expect them to create cheaper, consumer versions of their sensors in the future. Market Trends Several trends can be readily identified in the mhealth market. From an operator perspective, mobile carriers have in the last two years changed their view of the mhealth market, from a social obligation which comes under their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) to a revenue opportunity that can be monetised. The obligation for mhealth to necessarily play in the space between mobile technology specialist and healthcare specialist has led several successful monitoring companies to provide facilities for the interpretation of monitoring results in their own right as well as facilitating access to a patient s doctor or other medical staff. Juniper Research forecasts that revenues from remote patient monitoring using mobile networks will rise to almost $1.9 billion globally by 2014, with heart based monitoring in North America accounting for the bulk of early mobile monitoring roll-outs. Page 3 Juniper Research +44 1256 830002
Figure 2: Total Service Revenues ($bn) for Remote Health Monitoring Using Mobile Networks Split by 8 Key Regions 2009-2014 $2,000 $0 2009 Africa & Middle East Rest of Asia Pacific India Sub Continent Far East & China Eastern Europe Western Europe South America North America 2014 Source: Juniper Research Most major network operators and handset manufacturers offer services to the healthcare industry as an additional enterprise market and focussing on specific sub-sectors within it, such as the monitoring of the distribution of medications or the provision of mobile devices and services to healthcare staff. Order the Full Report This whitepaper is taken from the Mobile Healthcare Opportunities: Monitoring, Applications & mhealth Strategies 2010-2014 report. The report investigates the opportunities for mobile healthcare providing a concise strategic planning tool for all players wanting to maximise revenues within the mobile healthcare market. This unique report provides six year forecasts for public sector savings attributable to mhealth monitoring, as well the number of health monitoring events per year and service revenue from health monitoring. Other key forecasts include revenue and user forecasts from fitness and healthcare apps as well as the number of users that downloaded lifestyle and healthcare apps. This evaluation of the mobile health sector provides detailed analysis of the remote monitoring sector as well as examining the evolution of Smartphone apps and the impact of the app store model on the healthcare industry. Page 4 Juniper Research +44 1256 830002
Key questions the report answers: How much could the public healthcare sector save through cellular remote monitoring of individuals? Which mhealth apps provide the best ROI for players? How much will remote monitoring in the mobile health market be worth by 2014? Which operators have the most progressive outlook towards the mhealth sector? What does the future hold for mobile healthcare applications? Which regions will show substantial growth in mobile health monitoring revenues? Juniper Research Limited Juniper Research specialises in providing high quality analytical research reports and consultancy services to the telecoms industry. We have particular expertise in the mobile, wireless, broadband and IP-convergence sectors. Juniper is independent, unbiased, and able to draw from experienced senior managers with proven track records. Publication Details Publication date: April 2010 Author: Anthony Cox For more information, please contact: Michele Ince, General Manager michele.ince@juniperresearch.com Juniper Research Ltd, Church Cottage House, Church Square, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 7QW UK Tel: +44 (0)1256 830002/475656 Fax: +44 (0)1256 830093 Further whitepapers can be downloaded at http://www.juniperresearch.com Page 5 Juniper Research +44 1256 830002