The mobile health industry
Most mobile app developers are focusing on mobile game apps but there is another market for mobile apps that is much bigger, more beneficial and highly profitable: The mobile health market.
Today there are devices that can be attached to smart-phone and do amazing things that few people would think it is possible. For example, smart meters that connect to smart phone to measure blood sugar, blood pressure, etc., to help monitor and manage users’ health. Mobile apps also provide a lot of new opportunities for personal health and these apps are making a lot of money for developers.
According to a new Bloomberg Business report, next few years about 30 percent of the world’s smart phone owners will use mobile health apps to monitor their health. Many hospitals and doctors are beginning to look at mobile health as the next technology to be used. For example, an ultrasound machine cost about $100,000 but an attachment to a mobile phone made by a company called Mobisante also provides the same ultrasound functionality for $8000. Today hospital and doctors are buying these attachments to replace their expensive ultrasound machines. Many doctors now can carry this device in their pocket when travel.
Today developing countries in Africa, Asia and S. America are the largest users of mobile health apps. A government officer explained: “We can reduce our healthcare costs hundred times with mobile health. We cannot buy expensive medical equipments and even we have them, it is difficult to bring large machines to remote villages. With mobile devices attached to a smart phone, we have our answer. Today doctor can test patients’ blood sample using a blood meter attached to smart phone, send data to laboratory located thousand kilometers away and within minutes, get the results to patients. Nurses in small villages can consult with doctors and get good advices in treating patients. If you need microscope but do not have one, there is a device cost $25 that you can put on top of the camera lens of smart phone then you have a microscope picture. A doctor can take picture of patient’s blood cells, saliva, tissues and send them to a lab to be examined in a matter of few minutes. It is a miracle for all the poor countries.”
Mobile health is opening a new industry and new opportunities for many. As the number of mobile app developers is still in critical shortage, the opportunity to get into this field is wide open. Of course, developers must have an understanding of basic science and medicine to analyze the needs that they want to serve. There are success stories about the collaboration between doctors and mobile app developers in newspapers. For example, An Indian doctor who specializes in diabetic treatment collaborated with a software developer to create a mobile app for his patients. Each day patients measure their blood using a glucose meter device attaches to a smart phone. If the blood glucose reaches critical level, the smart phone will immediately send a warning text message to the doctor and schedules a visit for the patient to see the doctor immediately. According to the news, this devices and app already sold over ten millions in India alone. There are several smart phone applications and attachments in the mobile heath market such as blood pressure monitoring, blood glucose monitoring, mobile microscope, CT-scan review etc. However, the needs are endless and number of these new mobile heath apps is increasing.
Wall Street analysts predicted that the market for mobile health will grow 30% each year for the next ten years and valued at $170 billion dollars. The number of smart phone users will be using mobile health products will also increase as more people are concerned about their health than before. A doctor said: “Healthcare will be fundamentally difference than it used to be. With sophisticated software and attachments to mobile phone, healthcare professionals can perform many functions using less expensive equipments. By reducing costs for patients and medical providers, mobile health startups are now disrupting the traditional medical equipments that used to be dominated by giants companies such as Siemens, GE, and Phillips.
Jonas Paul, an entrepreneur whose startup make blood pressure measuring device for iPhone told the Wall Street Journal: “The day of expensive equipments from big companies are over. The big companies of tomorrow are the small startups of today. As many of us are quickly develop new apps, new devices, and new attachments we are creating a new movement to reduce healthcare costs. Today mobile health is like the software industry thirty years ago, and investors are pouring their money in healthcare startups. Last year, I started my company with $2000 borrowed from my parents. Today I have over ten million dollars invested in my company. We will sell our app and attachments globally and could grow our company to be a billion dollars in the next five years. We are developing iPhone and iPad apps for doctors to view CT, MRI and PET images on their smart phones. We created these apps in five weeks and sold for $500 each. Many doctors like them and recommend to others.”
Mobile health industry is growing very fast in the past two years. Beside doctors and patients, several governments are interested in using these mobile devices and apps too. The U.S Army is also interested to purchase these portable devices to diagnose wounded soldier in the field and they are in discussion with several startups. When the news is announced in Wall Street, many investing companies are interested in this growing market. A Wall Street analyst said: “If the buyers are government than the market could grow to three hundred billion dollars worldwide. We cannot miss this huge opportunity so we are looking very closely at some startups and start our investment now as something big will happen soon.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
