The global mHealth market is expected to reach $49.1 billion by 2020, according to a new study by the San Francisco-based Grand View Research.
According to the research, monitoring services are expected to remain the most dominant and fastest growing market segment, with market revenue of $1.2 billion in 2012, and an estimated CAGR of 50 percent from 2014 to 2020.
Although healthcare expenditures are among the lowest rates on record—a 3.7 percent spending increase in 2012, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—they are still on an upward trajectory, making medical services unaffordable for a large percentage of the population. As a result, the demand for mobile health is expected to increase considerably over the next six years. In addition to smartphone proliferation, uptake of 3G and 4G networks are expected to increase the demand for telemedicine services.
Additionally, the aging population and growing incidences of diseases linked to changing lifestyles have intensified the need for affordable and accessible healthcare. Concerns among users include the safety and privacy of information, along with the need for secure infrastructure.
The report also concluded that chronic disease management was the largest contributor to the monitoring services market, with higher demand from developed markets of North America and Europe. The market for post-acute care services accounted for 19.5 percent of the overall monitoring services revenue in 2012. Diagnosis services are more prevalent in developing markets, and growing adoption of these services is expected to considerably augment access to healthcare in these regions.
North America dominated the global market, accounting for 33.5 percent of total revenue in 2012. Highest demand originated from monitoring services, with growing incidences of chronic diseases necessitating the need for mobile health solutions among others.
