The global mobile health market is expected to grow at a rate of 49.7% over the next six years, with revenue expected to reach more than $49 billion in 2020, up from $1.2 billion in 2012, according to a report conducted by Grand View Research, Healthcare IT News reports (McCann, Healthcare IT News, 3/4).
Report Findings
The report found that in 2012:

• North America led the global market, accounting for about 33.5% of revenue worldwide; and
• Mobile operators accounted for about 48% of the mobile health market, with a majority of revenue coming from monitoring services.

According to the report, the top two contributors to monitoring services revenue in 2012 were:

• Chronic disease management; and
• Post-acute care services.

In a release, researchers called the monitoring services segment of mobile health "dominant and fastest growing," but they noted that there are concerns about data security and privacy among individuals in the mobile health IT field (Mottl, FierceMobileHealthcare, 3/4).
The report attributed the projected growth in the market to:

• Consumers' growing desire to manage their health at home more inexpensively; and
• Increasing creation and adoption of 3G and 4G networks that can be used for mobile health care services, including telemedicine (Gregg, Becker's Hospital Review, 2/28).

Source: iHealthBeat, Tuesday, March 4, 2014