Time for industry to tap into mobile health business

Consumers want to use mobile health devices and are even willing to pay for them, in order to exchange information with their providers, in a mHealth industry potentially worth between $7.7 billion and $43 billion, according to a recent survey.

Responding to the Healthcare unwired report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 40% of consumers said they would pay for remote monitoring devices and monthly service fees if it meant they could send health information to their providers electronically. Some 20% said they would want to use mHealth technology to monitor their fitness and well-being, and 18% said they’d want their physicians to monitor their health through technology.

Physicians who participated in the survey said they welcomed mobile devices as a way to make more informed decisions about patients, and 88% said they wanted their patients to be able to monitor their own health more closely. Doctors also named privacy and security an obstacle to adopting technology, however.

Mobile technology has a place within the health care industry if companies can improve physician reimbursement models for electronic communication and if the technology can be tailored personally for patients, the market researching giant said in its report. “Organizations that want to play a role in making ‘care anywhere’ a reality, will need to provide real value in order for adoption to occur,” the report stated.