Mobile - Health applications could save USD 2 to 6 billions in medical costs

[prweb] According to Juniper Research’s Mobile Health Opportunities Report, public and private healthcare providers will be able to save between $1.96 billion and $5.83 billion in healthcare costs through the use of remote patient monitoring using cellular networks by the year 2014.

The US and Canadian markets will generate the most cost savings, due to the inherent structure of their health systems, high healthcare costs, and more advanced remote monitoring roll outs: “The cost of a hospital bed, used as a proxy for cost, is much higher in the North American region, partly due to the role of health insurance in the US healthcare sector,” says Anthony Cox, Senior Analyst at Juniper Research and author of the report, “This has a direct impact on how much cost remote monitoring can save,” he says.

Monitoring via mobile networks can reduce healthcare costs particularly in developing markets

Under both a ‘base case’ and an ‘optimistic’ scenario, Mobile monitoring will save healthcare systems vast amounts of money in developed countries, finds the report, though the cost of mobile monitoring means that its deployment is questionable in developing regions.

Further findings from the mobile healthcare research include:

* Establishing the correct route to market for those selling m Health services will be key to their success
* In the past eighteen months there has been a renewed interest in m Health from operators globally
* The market for health and fitness mobile applications will thrive, eventually spawning a new market for advanced apps which integrate sensors worn on the body

The mobile healthcare report includes analysis of the current state of play in the m Health market and contains six year forecasts for key areas within the mobile health sector and associated service revenues. Forecasts include the number of mobile monitoring events, revenues from mobile health monitoring, 2 scenarios detailing cost savings attributable to mobile health monitoring, number of health and fitness application downloads, health and fitness download revenues.

Cost Savings from Mobile Health Monitoring to Reach $1.9 billion to $5.8 Billion Globally by 2014 says Juniper Research