The last decade has seen rapid growth and adoption of mobile computing devices, such as smartphones and tablets, by both consumers and enterprises, and the health care industry is no exception. Health care providers, clinicians and medical device manufacturers are seeking new and innovative ways to leverage the power of mobile to increase efficiencies and workflow, decrease health care costs and ultimately improve the quality of patient care. The health care industry’s adoption of mobile technologies directly impacts patients, particularly in Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) solutions that enable monitoring, evaluation and management of an individual through a remote interface that collects clinical data from an individual (e.g., blood pressure, weight) and transmits the data to a remote health care provider for clinical review, care management and patient education [1]. This paper examines the RPM market’s needs, opportunities, and the impact of mobile technologies.
1. Market needs and opportunities
Research has shown that the U.S. market for advanced patient monitoring systems has grown from $3.9 billion in 2007 to $8.9 billion in 2011, and is forecast to reach $20.9 billion by 2016. Efforts to reduce costs in health care are driven by a few key trends including a growing number of elderly patients in the years to come, a decreasing number of health care providers (including nurses and physicians), and an increasing rate of emergency room over-utilization and hospital readmissions [2]. Please refer to [3] for more RPM. The figure below shows examples of RPM devices.
References
[1] Continua Health Alliance http://www.continuaalliance.org/
[2] Remote Patient Monitoring Market to double by 2016 (July 25, 2012). http://www.informationweek.com/health care/mobile-wireless/remote-patient-monitoring-market-to-doub/240004291
[3] Wirelessly Enabled Remote Patient Monitoring Solutions – By Rajeev D. Rajan, Medical Design Technology (MDT) magazine (MDTMAG.COM). January/February 2013 edition
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