MHEALTH MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Challenges And Opportunities

Global mHealth Market Drivers

• Increasing acquisitions among key market players: Increasing adoption of inorganic growth strategies such as acquisitions is expected to drive the global mHealth market. For instance, in November 2022, ELNA Medical, a medical clinic in Canada, announced the acquisition of m-Health Solutions, a provider of cardiac monitoring technologies and cloud-based reporting services. The acquisition helps provide cloud-based AI-enabled reporting service that deliver faster results and a quicker treatment pathway for patients with cardiovascular diseases and other conditions, including sleep apnea.
• Increasing Launch of mHealth Applications: Increasing launch of mHealth applications to expand virtual care access is expected to drive market growth over the forecast period. For instance, on October 12, 2023, Cedars-Sinai, a specialty hospital in the U.S., launched a new artificial intelligence-driven mHealth application for patients in California that provides virtual care options for various clinical conditions. Patients can use the app to access care for numerous conditions, including colds, headaches, anxiety, type 2 diabetes, wellness visits, and specialist referrals.
• Increasing usage of health and fitness apps: The rising popularity of health and fitness apps has been a major factor propelling the growth of the global mHealth app market. With growing health consciousness among people and advancements in smartphone technology, more individuals are embracing digital solutions to track their fitness goals and manage medical Health and fitness apps offer a wide range of functions from step counting, calorie burning, dietary monitoring to diagnosis help, remote consultation and medication reminders. Their around-the-clock availability and easy synchronization with other devices has made them a convenient option for self-care. Particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, telehealth became an essential service with many turning to mobile apps to receive medical guidance while avoiding physical visits.

Global mHealth Market Restraints

• Low adoption of internet in some emerging economies: Low adoption of internet in some emerging economies is expected to hinder growth of the global mHealth market. For instance, in October, according to the Pew Research Center, Sub-Saharan Africa has a lower level of internet use than any other geographic region, ranging from a high of 59% in South Africa to a low of 25% in Tanzania.
• Moreover, resistance to change in general, the existence of unreliable technologies, the non-uniformity of technological availability, a lack of end-user education, and many other issues are also expected to limit the adoption of mHealth.
• Counterbalance: Thus, Government and private sector are focused on investment into telecommunications infrastructure for increasing internet coverage and quality
• Data Security and privacy concerns: Data security and privacy concerns have been a major obstacle in allowing the global mHealth market to reach its full potential in recent years. As digital health technology continues to rapidly advance and gather vast amounts of sensitive personal health data, users are increasingly worried about how their information could be vulnerable or misused. This erosion of trust in data protection acts as a brake on the widespread consumer adoption of mHealth apps and services.

Global mHealth Market Opportunities

• Growing usage of mHealth solutions for non-communicable diseases: The growing usage of mobile health or mHealth solutions holds great potential for the global mHealth market, particularly in managing non-communicable diseases (NCDs). NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes account for over 70% of all deaths globally each year according to the World Health Organization. Often these diseases require long-term treatment, continual monitoring of vitals, and management of chronic conditions.
• mHealth applications can help address some of the challenges in NCD management by enabling remote patient monitoring and delivering personalized care outside of clinical settings. This is especially useful in low to middle income countries where access to healthcare infrastructure is limited. By leveraging the widespread adoption of mobile phones, mHealth apps allow real-time transmission of biometric data like blood glucose levels, blood pressure, electrocardiogram readings etc. from the patient's home to the doctor's clinic. Alerts can also be set for abnormal readings so that medical intervention is not delayed. Apps further aid treatment adherence through scheduling medication reminders, online consultations, and health tracking features.
• Integration of emerging technologies like AI and IoT: The integration of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and the internet of things into mobile health solutions provides a tremendous opportunity to transform the global mHealth market. AI and IoT allow for the more personalized, predictive, and preventative delivery of healthcare services via mobile phones and connected devices.
• By utilizing huge amounts of health data collected from smartphones, wearables, and connected medical instruments, AI technologies can help detect health issues early and even predict the onset of diseases. This could help lower healthcare costs significantly by avoiding expensive urgent treatments for conditions that could have been caught at preventable stages. AI driven data analysis could also help gain novel insights into public health issues, aiding governments and NGOs in developing more effective and targeted policy interventions.