A new study from research firm Deloitte (New York, N.Y.) indicates that approximately 78 percent of mobile industry executives say that healthcare is the greatest opportunity for the mobile industry in terms of 4G services. This represents more than any other industry, with the retail and financial industries coming in behind healthcare.
In the study, Deloitte points to a number of reasons why mHealth is such a promising opportunity for 4G technology. For one, the study’s researchers noted the increasing growth of people affected by chronic illness in the U.S. along with an aging population. They mentioned the mandated objective to reduce preventable readmissions. And the researchers said there was a chronic shortfall of physicians that add to all of this. All of these needs, along with the growth of remote patient monitoring (RPM) technology, makes mHealth a valuable area.
The researchers also mentioned the broader challenges that the industry will have to work through. For one, there is a need for more trials to broaden the disease and population samples and align them with FDA recommendations, according to the researchers. There is also the evolving ecosystems, open operating systems in particular could present an issue.
The study comes from the analysis and research derived from 250 interviews with senior executives from mobile network operators, mobile device manufacturers, software applications developers and infrastructure component manufacturers
