Telecom Lead India: mHealth is set to grow further with
the rapid adoption of mobile technology.
A study conducted by PwC said the adoption of mobile
technology in healthcare will improve the convenience, cost and the way
customers communicate with their physicians.
PwC said that innovators seeking business potential in
mHealth, including telecommunications and technology companies, must work to
overcome the barriers slowing widespread adoption of mHealth.
The study reveals that roughly one-half of consumers in
all markets and 60 percent of consumers in India believe a widespread adoption
of this technology is inevitable.
“mHealth is the future of healthcare, deeply
integrated into delivery that will be better, faster, less expensive and far
more customer-focused. However, despite demand and the obvious potential
benefits of mHealth, rapid adoption is not yet occurring,” said David
Levy, MD, Global Healthcare Leader, PwC.
Over half consumers expect mHealth to change the way they
seek information on health issues. 48 per cent expect it to change the way they
communicate with physicians.
59 percent consumers already are using mHealth services
said they have replaced some visits to doctors or nurses.
Only 27 per cent of physicians encourage patients to use mHealth applications,
while 13 per cent of physicians actually discourage it. Furthermore, 42
per cent of doctors surveyed fear that mHealth will make patients too
independent.
“In younger, developing economies, healthcare is
less constrained by healthcare infrastructure and entrenched interests.
Consumers are more likely to use mobile devices and mHealth applications, and
more payers are willing to cover the cost of mHealth services,” said
Rana Mehta, leader, PWC India Healthcare.
The survey covered Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany,
India, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the US.
mHealth market to reach $23 billion by 2017: GSMA
The size of the mHealth market is likely to be $23 billion by
2017. The size of eHealth market will be up to $160 billion in
2015.
Telecom operators are developing ICT capabilities to
serve eHealth market, such as cloud-based medical records and imaging as well
as in the provision of health information exchanges.
