The Future of mHealth

[Samantha Hamilton]

According to a recent study, consumers expect to adopt the use of mobile technology in healthcare at a faster rate providers will be able to adapt. The study found that consumers have high expectations for mHealth, namely that it will drastically improve the convenience, cost and quality of their healthcare. Additionally, consumers see mHealth as a way to provide healthcare to markets where access is historically low.

Unfortunately, physicians and payers are not so eager to make the jump in to mHealth—nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of doctors and payers said that mHealth offers exciting possibilities but there are too few proven business models.  Currently, only 27 percent of physicians are encouraging their patients to use mHealth applications, and 13 percent of physicians actually discourage it.

The reason? The healthcare infrastructure of developed markets is too inflexible to accommodate a major change. In the United States, for example, providers are payers are constrained by historical precedence and outdated systems. However, it’s speculated that mHealth will become a major driver of healthcare in developing markets because of the inherent flexibility of their programs.

Moving forward, providers and payers will ultimately have to bend on their prior conventions and become more encompassing of consumers preferences—namely owning their healthcare and being able to manage whilst mobile.

Are you excited for mHealth to become a part of healthcare, or do you think it’s too much too soon?