The Increasing Role Of Smartphones In Digital Health

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

A Juniper Research report argues new smartphone interfaces are going to be instrumental to the future of mHealth.

A Juniper Research report argues new smartphone interfaces introduced by Apple and Samsung are pivotal aspects in the drive of the mHealth market, which is predicted to reach $3 billion by 2019.

The report – Digital Health: Remote Monitoring, Smart Accessories & EHR Cost Savings 2014-2019 – asserts that the widespread visibility and availability of these healthcare platforms for new smartphones will be the impetus for new developments of mHealth products such as blood pressure cuffs, oximeters, or sleep monitors. On the flip side, the report also notes the consumerization of digital health through Apple’s HealthKit and Samsung’s SAMI (Samsung Architecture for Multimodal Interactions) could have a detrimental effect on the remote patient monitoring device market.

Report author Anthony Cox notes, “As health platforms support more ‘medical’ devices, rather than just today’s fitness trackers, they will usurp the territory occupied by chronic disease monitoring companies.”

The report also raises the notion that Obamacare offers a tremendous digital healthcare opportunity by encouraging a re-evaluation of how healthcare needs ought to be addressed, with particular regard to digital health. The report suggests this shift will have some notable consequences, including:

• Healthcare companies investing in major digital healthcare players such as Epocrates and AirStrip;
• advanced EHR (Electronic Health Records) becoming the ‘glue’ to create wider digital health ecosystems, and;
• regulatory authorities embracing the role of digital health and imposing less stringent regulatory obligations on digital health companies.

Among the conclusions of the report is that “despite a more positive outlook for the digital health industry’s future, widespread, well-documented trials are still needed to galvanize take-up of remote patient monitoring projects.” The reimbursement of digital projects is still a question of concern for most healthcare organizations as well.

The full report provides a comprehensive suite of five-year calculated projections which assess the anticipated market opportunity to 2019, as well as an expanded view of the Digital Health market as a whole, providing operators, vendors and industry stakeholders with an in-depth analysis of market trends and opportunities.