Report: Telehealth market will explode to $6B by 2020

Current medical news and unique business news for anyone who cares about healthcare.

North, South America spur telehealth growth. The global telehealth market will reach $990 million by 2015, according to a new market report from InMedica. Increased use of home-monitoring medical devices (blood glucose meters, pulse oximeters, weight scales and peak flow meters) will drive up spending in the market, which in 2010 totaled $163.3 million.

Study: Entrepreneurs need more help. Entrepreneurs in the U.S. don’t have a good enough support system, according to research from Babson College and the Business Innovation Factory. Noted problems with the entrepreneurial system include too many stereotypes for entrepreneurs and too much difficulty raising venture capital.

Patent trolls a-trolling. A new OECD report claims that the quality of patents over the past two decades has dropped dramatically worldwide, with patent offices getting swamped with low-quality inventions, slowing down the process for quality innovations. Apparently, companies that exist to stockpile patents and spit out infringement suits are more common nowadays and have cost the economy half a trillion dollars over 20 years.

Longevity gene disputed. A debate has emerged about genes that make sirtuins, proteins that control cells’ metabolism, which researchers have said could add years to a person’s life if they are stimulated (GSK paid $720 million for a company making a drug to do so in 2008). London researchers have re-examined studies about sirtuins and claim they are faulty.

More proof that mobile health is growing… There will likely be more than 13,000 iPhone health apps by next summer, with the cost of health apps also rising. Currently there are about 9,000 consumer health apps with an average cost of $3.21.