Last week I read and wrote about a physician survey which suggested that few people are using mobile health apps to track data and share it with their doctors (although a reader noted that the Pew data I referenced likely underestimates the self-tracking that’s really going on).
This week, a market research firm put out a report forecasting that the mobile health sensor market will grow nearly 70 percent over each of the next five years. Mobile industry research firm research2guidance estimates that the revenue generated by health-related products that pair sensors with mobile apps will reach $5.6 billion by 2017.
This left me with some cognitive dissonance. There are certainly more cool technologies, more sensors and more apps – but if people aren’t using them, how are they going to draw in more revenue?
I tried to put my skepticism aside and consider why people just aren’t using them yet. research2guidance pointed out that most of the sensors and apps that are being developed or marketed turn medical products or processes into consumer products, meaning they’re less clunky and more fashionable than traditional medical devices. Take, for example, wristbands worn by seniors to detect falls and notify caregivers, helmet sensors that send coaches mobile alerts when a player has sustained a potentially dangerous blow, or sensor-embedded bath mats to detect diabetic foot ulcers. Others are add-ons to medical products, like Asthmapolis’ clip-on for asthma inhalers, which connects to an app that tracks when and where a person’s asthma attacks happen.
Consumers now are increasingly being incentivized by their employers to adopt healthy behaviors. Meanwhile, their healthcare providers are being pushed to do more in the way of preventive health and disease management (the focus of many of these sensors and apps), as reimbursement becomes value-based and ACOs continue forming. Since many people seem to think that physicians are the driving force in overhauling how care is delivered, perhaps those two forces will encourage growth in adoption of mobile products.
The report notes that to this point, the market has been dominated by small technology companies, but now bigger brands with more muscle, like Samsung and Nike, are joining the mix. It also notes a shift in the business model: “The sensor business model will shift from proprietary solutions, which are only working with a single app, to open systems, which allow connections to multiple apps,” it says.
One more factor worth mentioning is that, for a while, some mobile health companies seemed to be uneasy about the lack of clarity from the FDA on how it would regulate these kinds of devices and apps. Now that the FDA has cleared that up, there might be more activity in the way of apps for clinical use.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Whether that will all add up to a $5.6 billion market for mHealth sensor technology, though, I’m not going to hold my breath.
[Photo from BodyMedia]
