Wireless and Mobile Monitoring: Bringing Health Care Home

Article preview from Medtech Insight - March 01, 2011

The recent proliferation of smart phones and mobile apps has put everything from face-to-face meetings to comparison shopping into the palms of our hands. Wireless technology is changing the way we communicate and do business, and proponents say it could soon have a similar game-changing impact on health care. Indeed, hundreds of mobile health apps are already available for relatively simple tasks such as logging and tracking blood pressure measurements, caloric intake, and sleep habits, but this is only the beginning of what could be a pervasive and increasingly sophisticated technology trend in the years ahead.

Wireless and Mobile Monitoring: Bringing Health Care Home

Article preview from Medtech Insight - March 01, 2011

The recent proliferation of smart phones and mobile apps has put everything from face-to-face meetings to comparison shopping literally into the palms of our hands. Wireless technology is changing the way we communicate and do business, and proponents say it could soon have a similar game-changing impact on health care. Indeed, hundreds of mobile health apps are already available for relatively simple tasks such as logging and tracking blood pressure measurements, caloric intake, and sleep habits, but this is only the beginning of what could be a pervasive and increasingly sophisticated technology trend in the years ahead.

According to Parks Associates, a market research company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services, that trend, driven in large part by advances in mobile broadband connectivity, could amount to over $5.5 billion in revenues from digital health technology–enabled solutions and services by 2015. Of that total, connected wellness/fitness apps and programs are expected to make up only about 16%, while chronic care monitoring solutions are expected to account for about 46%.

But how practical it is to bring wireless-enabled technology and remote monitoring into the realm of the chronically ill? At first glance, it would seem like a good solution that may enable clinicians to detect problems in these patients early enough to help them avoid expensive hospitalizations and treatments, and perhaps even extend lives. And there is some evidence to suggest the technology may be able to do just that for certain patient populations. However, based on recent successes and challenges in this field, it is becoming apparent that the wireless health care market is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, and only those participants with the right technology and the right business model will garner the funding and payor acceptance necessary to succeed.

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