mHealth on growth trajectory

The global market for mHealth is expected to reach $49.1 billion by 2020, according to a recent study by Grand View Research. Monitoring services are expected to remain the dominant and fastest-growing market segment, with market revenue of $1.2 billion in 2012, and an estimated CAGR of 49.7% from 2014 to 2020.

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North America dominates the global market, accounting for 33.5% of total revenue in 2012, or $411.2 million. If North America maintains that dominant marketshare through 2020, revenues will exceed $1.6 billion.



Highest demand originates from monitoring services, with growing incidences of chronic diseases necessitating the need for mobile health solutions. In fact, demand for mobile health is expected to increase considerably over the next six years, Grand View Research noted. In addition to smartphone proliferation, uptake of 3G and 4G networks is expected to increase demand for telemedicine services. And the aging of the baby boomers, combined with the prevalence of chronic disease states, has intensified the need for affordable and accessible health care. Privacy concerns among users — especially given the recent, well-publicized retail data breaches — are the key challenges for market participants.



Further key findings from the study suggest that chronic disease management was the largest contributor to the monitoring services market, with higher demand from developed markets of North America and Europe. The market for post acute care services accounted for 19.5% of the overall monitoring services revenue in 2012.



Mobile operators accounted for 48% of the overall market in 2012, with the majority of their revenue originating from such monitoring services as independent aging solutions. The market for healthcare providers is expected to grow slower than the global average, at an estimated CAGR of 45.1% from 2014 to 2020.