Is mHealth Poised to Explode? Infograph Showing Growth of mHealth
The more that I discover, the more I love infographics. There’s just something about them that draws me in. I mean, some of the information listed on different infographics would probably be less-than-interesting presented by itself, or jumbled together with a bunch of other textual facts. However, adding some pictures and some colorful text makes it so much easier to read.
I found this as I was perusing Pinterest (it’s not just for finding meals, or sewing projects. A post on mHealth in Pinterest coming soon.) As you can see, this infographic poses the questions “Is mHealth poised to explode?”
These stats are crazy. There are more than 10,000 health apps in the iTunes App store? Sure, some of those are useless, but even after weeding those out, there’s so many. I think mHealth has a huge potential to change the way we view and access health care. The possibilities are endless! It was interesting, however, that 88 percent of doctor’s want their patients to monitor vital stats at home. How accurate could this be? This raises the question, will people actually do that? People don’t always do what their doctor’s advise, either because they don’t feel like it, or they forget. So what makes doctor’s think patients will actually track their vital stats? Maybe if they are using a mobile app, it will be easier, especially if there are reminders embedded into the app.
I’m interesting in finding out more about the apps listed at the end of this. They all seem pretty cool, and show just how innovative mHealth is becoming. Look for some posts on those in the future.
I definitely agree with the 40 percent of doctors that believe mobile technology will reduce the number of visits to the doctor. I’ve seen this to be true in my own life, as I’ve been able to find answers to some of my questions without having to call and bother my doctor in the middle of the night, or going to the doctor unnecessarily. If mHealth can safely reduce the number of visits to the doctor’s office, I feel like everyone would benefit: Less people would be paying unnecessary co-pays, doctor’s offices would be less crowded, resulting in less waiting time for patient’s that actually need to be there.
I love this time that we live in there. There are so many opportunities available, and ways to better how we live. To answer the questions asked by this infograph, we are just at the beginning of the mHealth explosion. It will be exciting to see what will come about in the near future.
“There are mote than 10,000 medical/healthcare apps available in Apples iTunes app store”
What percentage of these apps are simple exercise and calorie counters? I think Apple may be selectively interpreting what “medical/healthcare app” really means
Mark–that’s a good point. I actually wondered that myself, because there are a boat load of exercise and medical apps. I will try and find out the answer to that, as it does make a difference in seeing if that number is referring to apps beyond exercise/health apps.
I agree that there is tremendous opportunity in this time of mobile health, but there is also an enormous risk for increasing disparities. I see people in healthcare crises on a daily basis–my job involves people with disabilities (often newly diagnosed) and people over 60 years of age. A very small number of this population has access to these technologies, mostly for financial reasons, but also for cultural reasons. Many people have never had any sort of training, even with desktops, or have never had the adaptive technology or accessible software to make it possible for them to use it.
At the same time, many of the people I see face significant difficulties with physical access, particularly with transportation–often the only transportation that they can access is solely for medical appointments. Isolation is a big problem. What will happen in this changing era if they face even more barriers, now not only physical, but virtual, as well?
[...] Is mHealth Poised to Explode? Infograph Showing Growth of mHealth [...]
[...] are mainly about food and crafts, I keep seeing more and more health related pins pop up. I found the infograph that I wrote about a weeks ago, and just today saw an article about “smart fingertips”, which could be the latest and [...]
[...] storage and mobile will explode: We have already see the growth and “explosion” of mHealth in the past year or so, and it’s only going to continue. I think 2013 is going to be a huge [...]