Mobile Redefines the Future Healthcare
Mobile
healthcare is not new, when the first time we transferred medical results
through telegraph, consulted doctor over the phone, we had stepped in the mhealth
industry. Nowadays, mobile healthcare grows even faster and trends to be more
personalized.
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| mHealth （source: http://healthworkscollective.com/ principle-healthcare/34077/moving-mhealth-next- frontier-aligning-patients-physicians-healthcare-prov) |
Despite
of the advancements in medical technologies and a general increase in income
level, healthcare continues to pose challenges of affordability and
accessibility across the world. On the contrary, mobile
access becomes ubiquitous worldwide.
As
the growing rates of mobile adoption, it’s really a wonderful idea that
leverages the ubiquity of mobile devices to easy access to healthcare.
Furthermore, with lower costs and wide spread availability, mhealth changes the
way of delivering healthcare and doing business, making healthcare faster, better and
cheaper.
Main
Players in mHealth
According
to world health organization (WHO) 2013, mhealth is the medical and public
health practice supported by mobile devices such as mobile phone, tablets, and
patients monitoring devices, personal digital assistant, and other wireless
devices.” Indeed, it’s a promising and meaningful industry that attracts four
types players we have concluded to move into including Healthcare device
manufactures, such as company Johnson & Johnson and General Electric;
Mobile hardware, Software & Network Providers like AT&T and Apple;
Health Services providers such as Hospital and health insurances; New Players
like Fitbit and Nike. And there is no doubt that players have forecasted the
tremendous market opportunity however the current revenue is not that attractive.
Since the mhealth industry is in early stage, the customer foundation is not
strong enough and well developed. Yet entrepreneurs worldwide
need to find business models that work in the current environment.
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| Players moving into mobile health industry (Source: own graphic) |
Factors
Driving Global mHealth Development
The
world becomes more globalized. Although healthcare challenges can vary from
region to region, health systems around the world have the same objective and
people’s demand on healthcare over the countries keeps increasing all the time.
In other words, the universe is driven by the same factors in developing
mhealth.
Aging population and chronic diseases
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| Aging Population (source: http://www.dailyfinance.com /on/aging-america-population-stocks-to-buy/) |
Aging
populations and chronic diseases are in a long-term growth trends and
anticipated to place a huge burden on the healthcare system. The global
population age 60 or above is tripled over the last 50 years, and expects to
reach nearly two billion in 2050. Chronic diseases are, by far, the leading
cause of mortality in the world, representing 63 percent of all deaths based on
WTO data base.
Rising
healthcare expenditure
The
costs on healthcare become affordable, and increase globally. Unfortunately,
higher costs do not necessarily correlate to better results or higher-quality
care, even in developed countries.
Pressure on healthcare services delivery
Improving
health care access is a major goal of governments around the world, and a
centerpiece of many reform efforts to deliver the highest possible quality of
care to the maximum number of people at the lowest possible cost.
Foundations
already in place
The
foundations of industrialization of healthcare are already in place —
electronic medical records, remote monitoring and communications.
Personalization
Healthcare,
like other industries, is getting personal. mHealth can offer personal toolkits
for predictive, participatory and preventative care.
Incredible
mHealth Global Demands
According to the
International Telecommunications Union, overall mobile penetration rates have
reached 96% globally by 2013, 128% in the developed country and 89% in the
developing country. The increasing number of Smartphone as well as the 3G and 4G
networks boosts the use of mobile platform for providing healthcare services.
Benefit from the high mobile penetration rate, the value of mhealth global market in 2012
is $1,950 million, and expects to reach nearly 50 billion by 2020, according to
a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. And PWC predicts that by 2017, Asia
Pacific and Europe are expect be the largest market with 30% market share each,
followed by the North America with 28% share. And among the various categories,
monitoring services is expected to grow fastest, and still account the largest
segment with market revenue of $1,278 million in 2012, and an estimated CAGR of
49.7 from 2014 to 2020.
In
addition, the research shows that the mhealth develops at different rate and
adoptions globally, with emerging market move fast than developed market. While
the challenges from government trust, regulatory support, physician acceptance,
user adoption is pending to digest in future. Private information protection is
also an important determinant of the success under globalization.
What’s the impact on Medical research by using mobile technology?
Medical research
needs tremendous amount information to study and the medical research are very
often bounded by the geography. The traditional way of gathering volunteer and
data is defined as time-consuming, high cost and limited information.
Currently, most of the medical research conducted in clinics and hospitals. In
order to recruit enough of participants, medical researchers need to send out
large numbers of invitation emails or letters but get low response rate. For
these volunteers are willing take part in, going to the lab as scheduled,
signing an informed consent with well knowing about the risk and potential
benefits. For example, in the early 1990s, a large heart attack trial performed
that enrolled over 41,000 patients; it took nearly 3 years and cost more than
$50 million.
While mobile
medical research overcomes these shortages with real-time, digital,
high-frequency data support, it’s easier and cost-effective. The result data
could upload automatically and transmit after individuals complete the test
through mobile devices anywhere, or through the senor continuous capturing
which is wearable. As a result, it increases participant base, expands
channels/platforms, enhances efficiency and decreases costs. And medical
researchers could well define the market segment and predict the needs of
customers, providing better services. And in current market, stakeholders make
effort on two directions in mobile medical research industry.
Find New Value
through Partnership
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| 5 Apps (source:http://article.wn.com/view/2015/03/11 /First_medical_apps_built_with_Apples_ResearchKit_wont_share_/) |
Recently,
Apple just releases the medical research platform named research kit with the
ability to recruit participant from the public via Smartphone. This immediately
access millions of individuals and the platform could be considered as a
partnership or cooperation between mobile operators, healthcare providers, and
researchers that can build out a medical testing app accessible to people far away.
Everyone can contribute to the next big medical breakthrough with signup the
digital signature and instantly start recording data use Iphone’s sensors. Five
apps are ready for use in the research kit, for instant, Parkionson. Using
Iphone’s sensor, Parkionson can record down the daily data. The touch screen
can feel people tapping in rhythm, the accelerometer can compare the gait，and the microphone can notice
minute fluctuations in someone’s voice.
Innovation
on Devices
Cardionet
as we mentioned in assignment two is so successful on its star product MOCT
(Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry) helping to provide the real-time cardio
monitor services. Company also builds its own research department to process
the tremendous data collected from the sensor, and improves the diagnostic
services ultimately through the broad data sources brings by the MOCT. By using
smaller and multiple functional devices developed by Cardionet, research
department could get better data quality.
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| Google Smart contact lens (source: http://truetechie.com/google-smart-contact-lens/) |
Apple’s
competitor Google has already lunched a difficult science project one year ago
focusing on human body, working so hard on incredible devices to gather the
valuable data. For instant, a smart contact lens developed to monitor glucose
levels continuously for the study, cancer-detection pill which made by nano
material could indeed attach to markers in the bloodstream that are highly
specific for cancer, and read information from these particles well enough to
make an accurate diagnosis.
Under
globalization, with easy access and contribution of the study, researchers can get frequent data from worldwide in high diversity and large population,
which helps to lead to more accurate results. Thanks to the varied and
advanced-technology sensors, the input data could be more precise worldwide. In
the near future, we may picture that all the stakeholders could bond
together, carrying with the big data and could technology, continue to intelligentze in medical research.
Conclusion
Worldwide,
the mobile technology has moved up the healthcare agenda and breaks the social
and geographical barriers. It allows data capture easier and to be transmitted
through network between different end users across the globe. The adoption of
mHealth changes the healthcare system and brings significant social and
economic benefits. Meanwhile there are also challenges to overcome in the near
future. The stakeholders need to keep innovating on the devices, integrating
sources and expanding the way in cooperation.
International
Telecommunications Union, The World in 2013: ICT Facts and Figures report, Available
at: http://www.itu.int/en/ITUD/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2013.pdf
PwC
and GSMA, Touching lives through mobile health: Assessment of the global market
opportunity, February 2012
PWC
mhealth mobile market report, 2015, Available at:
http://www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/healthcare/mhealth/mhealth-insights/assets/pwc-mhealth-mobile-market-6.pdf
A
New Mobile Model of Medical Research. Eric J. Topol, M. (2015). Available at: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/841646
PWC emerging mhealth full report, (2015).
Available at: http://www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/healthcare/mhealth/assets/pwc-emerging-mhealth-full.pdf
Global
health care sector report, (2014), Available at:
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Life-Sciences-Health-Care/dttl-lshc-2014-global-health-care-sector-report.pdf
Why Google's Cancer-Detecting Pill Is More Than Just Hype | WIRED. Metz, C. (2015).
Available at: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/googles-cancer-detecting-pill-just-hype/
Apple – ResearchKit, 2015. Available at:
https://www.apple.com/researchkit/
Global
mHealth Market to Reach USD 49,119.2 Million by 2020,GVR. Available at:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/global-mhealth-market-reach-usd-491192-million-2020gvr-rahul-sutar
Apple ResearchKit Turns iPhones Into Medical Diagnostic Devices. Constine, J. (2015). Available at: http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/09/apple-introduces-researchkit-turning-iphones-into-medical-diagnostic-devices/#.7kjqi2:BUMS
Apple’s
Health Research Kit Makes iPhone Users Test Subjects. Chen, C. and Pettypiece,
S. (2015). Available at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-09/apple-s-health-research-kit-makes-iphone-users-test-subjects
Cardionet.com, (2015). Mobile Cardiac
Outpatient Telemetry (MCOT) - Cardiac Telemetry | CardioNet Event Monitors.
[online] Available at: https://www.cardionet.com/
