The GSMA recently announced that mobile technology will play a significant role in the provision of healthcare services globally, and predicts that the growth of the mHealth market will lead to a revenue opportunity of $23 billion by 2017.  The findings were based on the new report, Touching Lives through Mobile Health: Assessment of the Global Market Opportunity, conducted by PwC for the GSMA.  The report looks at the key challenges the healthcare industry is facing worldwide, and the opportunity mobile technology provides in overcoming these challenges.

“By 2017, mobile technology will be a key enabler of healthcare delivery reaching every corner of the globe,” said Jeanine Vos, Executive Director, mHealth at the GSMA. “With developed countries needing to reduce the cost of universal healthcare, and developing countries looking to roll out life-saving services to in-need communities, mobile technology offers the ability to deliver highly effective, scalable and affordable healthcare beyond the confines of a hospital or doctor’s surgery.”

Mobile Technology And Asthma

Medical technology company iSonea Ltd. together with Qualcomm Life Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc., are working on a home and mobile asthma monitoring platform.  The new technology will be a combination of iSonea’s proprietary Acoustic Respiratory Monitoring devices and mobile health asthma management systems with Qualcomm’s 2net platform.

The effort will leverage Qualcomm Life’s 2net Hub – a plug-and-play connectivity gateway to the cloud-based 2net platform data server.  It will collect and transmit patient health data from iSonea’s monitoring devices.  This will allow physicians to securely access patient monitoring data, review treatment progress and medication adherence and adjust patient action plans accordingly.  Family and caregivers will be able to view trends for reassurance about patient care.

“Asthma is a widespread and growing condition that affects 300 million people worldwide and represents a major healthcare cost burden,” said Michael J. Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of iSonea Limited. “With our smartphone platform and Qualcomm’s end-to-end wireless systems expertise, we will provide asthma patients with the ability to monitor and report breathing distress symptoms triggered by environmental factors, as well as their response to treatment. Better daily monitoring can lead to improved medication compliance, lower healthcare costs and improved chronic management of asthma. For patients or family members, better monitoring also means more peace of mind.”

Health Related Apps

On a healthcare related note, the Monroe Hospital in Bloomington, IN, announced their partnership with the Schumacher Group to bring iTriage – a one-stop health care app that lets users quickly and easily look up medical symptoms, causes and treatment options, closer to the growing number of smartphone owners.

The app features:

• Research medical symptoms and conditions
• Learn about possible causes and treatment options
• Obtain medication information for treatment of a specific condition
• Find Monroe Hospital information like services provided, hours and directions

“At Monroe Hospital, we’re proud to offer the latest technology to our community, which reinforces our commitment to enhancing the patient experience,” said Fred Price, President and CEO of Monroe Hospital. “iTriage allows us to provide patients with more information about the services we offer and helps them make informed healthcare decisions when they have an immediate medical need.”

Another app which could literally save lives is the PulsePoint app, a product of the collaboration between the San Jose Fire Department and El Camino Hospital, that enables members of the public to provide life-saving assistance to victims of sudden cardiac arrest, which causes nearly 1,000 deaths a day in the United States.

“Once a sudden cardiac arrest begins, chances of that person surviving decrease 10 percent for every minute that passes without resuscitation; after 10 minutes there is little chance for successful resuscitation,” said Chad Rammohan, MD, FACC, medical director of the Chest Pain Center at El Camino Hospital.  “Citizen responders can help stop the clock by starting CPR immediately and help increase the individual’s chances for survival until paramedics arrive. Recent advances in hospital management including cooling or therapeutic hypothermia have made a significant difference in meaningful recovery.”

There are also apps to help diabetic patients monitor their insulin like the DiabetesPilot app, which tracks blood glucose levels, insulin intake, blood pressure and weight.

And soon there could be phsychotherapy apps available.  Researchers are developing and testing apps that would help people with psychological issues, like depression and anxiety, ignore the negative feeling brought about by certain situations.  Though the app is still being developed, some are voicing their support for the app as it could be a way for people to get help, even if their budget doesn’t permit it.  But some are concerned that this matter should be handled by professionals, not apps.

Gadgets For Health

Though most of us rely on apps for tracking our workout, calories burned or how many steps we made, there are still some devices better suited for such tasks like the MOTOACTV.

The MOTOACTV is a GPS fitness tracker and smart music player combined into a small, wearable device that tracks your workout progress/data like speed, distance, and burned calories, and stores the data online by creating an account at MOTOACTV.com so you can also plan your workouts, create long-term goals, analyze your performance and more.  It also stores hours and hours of music, and has an intuitive feature to determine which songs motivate your workout.  And since it’s meant to be worn by people who live an active lifestyle, MOTOACTV is rain, sweat and scratch resistant.

The smartwatch goes well with the SF700, a Bluetooth heart rate monitor, and sports headphones that have a built-in ear sensor to detect heart rate without the uncomfortable chest-strap squeeze. Heart rate data is audible and also transmitted to your MOTOACTV device.

InvenSense, Inc., the provider of MotionTracking devices for consumer electronics, recently released the MotionFit SDK to accelerate design and commercialization of wearable sensor devices for the growing fitness and remote health monitoring markets.

The MotionFit SDK consists of a small 40mm x 37mm development board incorporating the InvenSense MPU-9150 single chip 9-axis MotionTracking device, a pressure sensor for altitude tracking, a TI MSP430 microcontroller with external serial flash for data logging, a 110mA/hr rechargeable battery, and communication via USB or Bluetooth interfaces enabling real-time streaming of data to smartphones.

A demonstration of the SDK will be shown at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 27 through March 1 in Hall 7 at booth 7F24.