By Telecom Lead Team: Mobile technology will drive the
growth of the mHealth market to a revenue opportunity worth $23 billion by
2017.
The provision of pervasive mHealth services and
applications worldwide could provide mobile operators with revenues worth
approximately $11.5 billion by 2017.
In addition, device vendors could benefit from a revenue
opportunity of $6.6 billion, content and application providers $2.6
billion, and healthcare providers $2.4 billion by 2017, according to the
findings of GSMA.
The report predicts that Europe would become the
largest mHealth region by 2017 with revenues of $6.9 billion.
Asia Pacific would be the second-largest region with
revenues of $6.8 billion, North America could account
for $6.5 billion, Latin America $1.6 billion and Africa $1.2
billion.
“With developed countries needing to reduce the cost
of universal healthcare, and developing countries looking to roll out
life-saving services to in-need communities, mobile technology offers the
ability to deliver highly effective, scalable and affordable healthcare beyond
the confines of a hospital or doctor’s surgery,” said Jeanine Vos,
executive director, mHealth at the GSMA.
In terms of individual countries, the United
States could benefit from revenues of $5.9 billion, accounting for a
quarter of the global mHealth market by 2017, and revenues
in China and Japan could reach $2.5 billion
and $1.4 billion respectively.
Under the mHealth umbrella, monitoring services, such as
those for chronic disease management, will account for 65 percent of the market
($15 billion) by 2017.
Diagnosis services will be the second-largest segment,
comprising 15 percent of the global mHealth market ($3.4 billion).
Treatment services will be the third-largest revenue
opportunity at 10 percent of the overall market (US$2.3 billion).
GSMA denoted in its study that increasing penetration of
smartphones and new and innovative ‘connected devices’, and the proliferation
of Mobile Broadband networks and services worldwide will play a greater role in
healthcare in both developed and developing countries in the future.
GSMA suggested that governments, regulators and
healthcare providers need to work with mobile operators and organizations in
the broader mHealth ecosystem.
Recently, Juniper Research said that mobile healthcare and medical App downloads will reach 44
million in 2012, rising to 142 million in 2016.
editor@telecomlead.com
