By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    improving patient experience
    6 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction Within Hospitals
    December 1, 2021
    degree for healthcare job
    What Are The Health Benefits Of Having A Degree?
    March 9, 2022
    custom software development is changing healthcare
    Digital Customer Journey Mapping and its Importance for Healthcare
    July 21, 2022
    Latest News
    Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
    May 16, 2025
    Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
    May 16, 2025
    Choosing the Right Supplement Manufacturer for Your Brand
    May 1, 2025
    Engineering Temporary Hospitals for Extreme Weather
    April 24, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Can Thinking Younger Make You Live Longer?
    April 20, 2011
    Image
    Obesity’s Outlook Unchanged
    June 13, 2011
    When It’s An Emergency Elderly Not Treated As Well in Hospitals
    July 16, 2011
    Latest News
    Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
    May 18, 2025
    The Critical Role of Healthcare in Personal Injury Recovery: A Comprehensive Guide for Victims
    May 14, 2025
    The Backbone of Successful Trials: Clinical Data Management
    April 28, 2025
    Advancing Your Healthcare Career through Education and Specialization
    April 16, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: 2016: The Year of Mobile Health
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > eHealth > Mobile Health > 2016: The Year of Mobile Health
eHealthMobile HealthSocial MediaTechnology

2016: The Year of Mobile Health

Ben Edge
Last updated: March 2, 2016 12:09 pm
Ben Edge
Share
9 Min Read
2016 - The Year of Mobile Health Image
SHARE

2016 - The Year of Mobile Health Image

Contents
The year of mobile health?Large-scale data and research

The year of mobile – we’ve heard this phrase proclaimed every January for the past couple of years, followed by dizzying amounts of variations and extensions such as the year of mobile commerce and the year of the mobile marketing.

2016 - The Year of Mobile Health Image

The year of mobile – we’ve heard this phrase proclaimed every January for the past couple of years, followed by dizzying amounts of variations and extensions such as the year of mobile commerce and the year of the mobile marketing.

More Read

isolated-hapifork
What Happens When Mindfulness Meets Tech?
The Consumer-Driven, Digital Disruption in Healthcare
MRgFUS Could be a Viable Option for Facet Joint Back Pain
The Impact of Virtual Healthcare Assistants on Clinical Practices
A story about the pharmaceutical industry, doctors and patients

The rise of mobile was recognised by Forbes back in 2014, for example: ‘not surprisingly, marketers are following consumers to mobile.  The numbers are just too large for brands to ignore and while the marketing industry has been keenly aware of mobile’s impact, 2014 will likely be the tipping point where companies seriously embrace mobile.’

And true enough, the numbers are very telling.  A recent study has found that the average human being spends 90 minutes a day on their phone – that’s a full 23 days a year or 3.9 years of the average life! Mobile shopping has officially overtaken desktop, and 50% of people reportedly no longer wear a watch as they say their mobile phone is more than adequate for telling the time.

Regardless of which year we settle on as the summit of mobile dominance, it’s clear that we are now firmly within a mobile, digital age.

The year of mobile health?

I’m going to jump on the ‘year of the mobile’ bandwagon here and suggest (perhaps a bit optimistically, but bear with me!) that 2016 will be the year of mobile health, or mHealth if you want to be cool about it.

Mobile health technology is ‘the fastest growing sector of one of the fastest growing markets in the world’ according to The Atlantic. The connected mobile healthcare market is set to be worth £37bn by 2020, and it has been projected that the UK share of the market could be worth almost £2bn – around 5% of the total.

Reflecting this, there are currently 165,000 health-related apps on the market. The rise of wearable technology alongside them has received a lot of coverage and discussion recently, particularly regarding the ways in which it can benefit our health through encouraging us to eat well and stay active. But can an app a day keep the doctor away? It’s beginning to look that way!

Interestingly, it’s not just patients that are using mobile technology to monitor our health. According to Business Insider, medical professionals are ‘using apps as an equipment supplement, and advances in mobile sensors are helping them identify potential health problems. The findings can then be geo-located, synced to patient records and shared with partner physicians. Physicians are also tapping into medical apps to record and access patient information on the spot.’

A report on mobile health conducted by The Economist found that 64% of healthcare executives say mobile health could dramatically improve outcomes by giving people greater access to medical information, and an even greater 79% of healthcare professionals say that mobile technologies are providing education and information.

Mobile Health Apps By Category

Naturally, however, there are concerns regarding medical app regulations and data privacy issues. An impressive 70% of people use mobile apps on a daily basis to monitor health-related activities such as calorie intake and exercise, but only 40% are willing to share such valuable data with their doctor. 

Thankfully, these concerns are being addressed swiftly enough that they hopefully won’t hinder the progress of mobile health. Following a consultation in 2014 that found two of the barriers to digital health app adoption were the privacy issues and security of health data, the European Commission has formed a working group that will create guidelines to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of health app data. The ultimate goal is to create a trustworthy mobile health service, one in which we feel comfortable sharing out personal and private information.

Large-scale data and research

It’s not just our wearable fitness trackers that gather data about us, of course – our mobile phones are also highly effective, and often underestimated, data collection devices.

In fact, wearable fitness trackers depend upon our smartphones. Devices including the Fitbit, the Apple Watch and Jawbone can’t connect to the Internet or process the data they generate independently – they require the power and connectivity of a smartphone. As TechCrunch noted, ‘nearly all mobile health data solutions today require pairing with a smartphone.’

The amount of data being collected by devices and smartphones is increasing at an exponential rate and is only going to continue to grow. Every day there are more mobile phones sold than babies born. The challenge, therefore, will be how we use that data to tackle issues surrounding our health.

With the rise of big data, opportunities for scientists and medical researchers have simultaneously increased:

  • Sequencing a human genome, for example, used to take years to achieve. It now takes less than a week.
  • A cardiovascular study in America that tested the distance walked in a specified time period enlisted 6,000 people in just the first two weeks – 40,000 people within four months. The reason that such high numbers can be achieved is that millions use smartphones and fitness trackers with sensors that can record all sorts of physical activity, and this data can be easily shared.
  • In Malawi, a project called Action Meningitis is harnessing the connectivity and reach of smartphones to provide earlier diagnoses and decrease the number of preventable deaths.
  • Incredible large-scale projects such as the 100,000 Genomes Project – currently sequencing 100,000 genomes from around 70,000 people – are now possible, and are helping scientists find cures for obscure and devastating diseases by studying the genetic composition of a huge group of people.
  • Amazingly, the first children with debilitating “mystery” diseases are finally receiving accurate diagnoses as part of this scheme to analyse great amounts of people’s DNA data.

By escalating studies and research to include data points gleaned from millions of people, scientists can uncover valuable knowledge that will greatly advance the cause of preventive medicine.

We can see, therefore, that mobile and digital technology are already creating waves within the huge and often slow-moving healthcare industry, and it would seem that I’m not alone in championing the progress of mobile health – it features as one of Healthcare IT News’ six predictions for 2016 as well, and is undoubtedly swimming at the front of many bright minds with the power to influence its progress.

It has even been suggested that mobile technology ‘is perhaps one of the greatest developments in preventive care ever.’ The thought of what mobile health has to offer in 2016 is an exciting one.

Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

Clinical Expertise
Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
Health care
May 18, 2025
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Health
May 15, 2025
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Health
May 15, 2025
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction heart treatment
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction
Cardiology
May 13, 2025

You Might also Like

FDA Social Media Guidance: Hangout on Air

July 29, 2014
person-centered healthcare
Medical InnovationsNewsWellness

Person-Centered HealthCare: Patient Room of the Future

August 9, 2013

Sales Reps Not Included: On e-Commerce Site, Device Firms Discount Routinely Used Implants

June 17, 2013
mhealth
eHealthMobile Health

Mobile Health Around the Globe: Smartphone Microscope for Nano Particle Detection

October 14, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?