Healthcare App Market Valued At Half A Billion Dollars

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

According to a Kalorama Information report, the 2015 medical app market is worth nearly $490 million and growing.

Medical apps are a half a billion dollar industry, according to analysis from Kalorama Information. In 2015 alone, the medical app market was worth $489 million with nearly 40 percent of sales coming from health monitoring apps.

“Involvement in this care segment has several benefits and hospitals, care givers, device manufacturers, and patients are continuing to jump on board with acceptance and using this technology,” said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information in a press release.

MobiHealth News reports the most common types of medical monitoring apps are ones that track diabetes and heart conditions. Other areas also show widespread adoption including tracking behavioral and mental health, cancer, respiratory disorders, pain, and obesity.

While apps seem to be a simple solution to communicating with patients, according to Health IT Outcomes, many apps are not well suited to their potential users. For example, many apps are difficult for low-vision users to operate. This quickly becomes a problem because many health apps are directed at the chronically ill such as diabetics and the obese — many of which have vision problems associated with their illnesses.

Additionally, many question the security of such apps and the integrity of the sometimes sensitive data they collect. In a recent Veracode report, the healthcare industry ranked poorly when it comes to securing app software and protecting user data. “Given the large amount of sensitive data collected by healthcare organizations, it’s concerning that 80 percent of healthcare applications exhibit cryptographic issues such as weak algorithms upon initial assessment,” the report authors wrote in reference to authentication protocols.