Mobile Health Market Worth $2.1 Billion in 2011; Growth of 22% in Next Three Years

Another focus of the report is the growth of mobile health and the key role it will play in various areas of healthcare delivery, including education and awareness, remote data collection, remote monitoring, disease and epidemic outbreak tracking, and diagnostic and treatment support.

The mobile health market has a year-over-year growth rate of around 17% since 2010 and is estimated to be worth $2.1 billion at the end of 2011. The report also said the mobile health market is expected to grow with a CAGR of nearly 22% from 2012 to 2014.

“The buzz surrounding mobile healthcare has steadily grown during the past two years. There’s no question that this area holds enormous potential in terms of improving patient care in the U.S.,” the report concludes.

The main driver of mobile health’s growth is the increasing adoption of smartphones during the past few years. According to the report, at the end of 2009, smartphone penetration was around 21% and is expected to be 50% by the end of 2011. Further, over 72% of physicians are smartphone users, and mobile health applications embedded in smartphones are a main reason for this increased usage.

Another trend of note is the adoption of Apple’s iPad tablets. More than 20% of U.S. physicians already have iPads, the report said.

“There are over 10,000 applications related to mobile health of which around 40% are designed for healthcare professionals, which includes remote monitoring and healthcare management applications. Even the Apple iTunes application store has about 6,000 mobile health applications,” the report said. -Source

I don’t know that there are very many industries out there that are projecting 22% growth in the midst of a major recession.  While that is quite impressive, there is something that I find even more amazing.  In an article I referenced last month they estimated the value of the mobile health market at $1.7 billion by 2014.  However, this article, written only six months later, estimates the value of the mHealth market at $2.1 billion by the end of this year.  Now you could attribute this to an uncertain future for mHealth, but I see it as a sign that the mHealth market is growing bigger and more rapidly than anyone could have expected.  I think this is another one of those technological booms that we will all underestimate.