Mobile health can be an effective tool to address Australia’s healthcare challenges, however, adoption is fraught with obstacles and continues to be skewed towards consumer ended offerings, research analyst firm Frost & Sullivan said in a report.
A key issue is access to timely and, which it says can potentially be addressed by enhancing and improving communication between providers and patients using mobile health (mHealth).
The research firm estimates that almost 15 million Australians are connected through a smartphone and the market was worth $1.4 billion in 2014. It is projected to rise to $2.18 billion in 2019 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3 percent during this period.
Shalani Andria, Connected Health Industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said healthcare providers and mHealth companies believe mHealth can play a vital role in the Australian healthcare system and envision mobile technologies to play a far more important role than even improving healthcare access.
Much like most evolving markets, however, in mHealth in Australia is still at its infant stage, and its full potential in addressing some of the major care delivery challenges is yet to be realized.
The report noted that consumers are leveraging mHealth apps and related data analytics services mainly for activity monitoring, wellness and fitness purposes. There is some evidence of chronic disease management programs using mHealth both in the public and private sector, but these are still in pilot phases.
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Quelle/Source: Healthcare Innovation, 18.08.2015