Healthcare technology – specifically healthcare applications (apps) for smartphone devices – is a rapidly growing field with vastly different targets and purposes. With continuous improvements in both tablets and smartphones, the healthcare app market is one that investors and innovators should watch closely in 2019, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
The utility of these apps ranges from clinical decision support to at-home health management. The purposes of the apps are also incredibly diverse. For example, some apps aim to provide in-hospital clinical support, while other apps aim to provide healthcare services to developing countries that lack medical devices for proper patient care. In the clinical setting, the use of healthcare apps for clinical decision support is becoming routine, and there is strong evidence of their reliability.
Apps such as the ‘CardioSmart Heart Explorer App’ have proven to be effective in clinical decision support assistance and risk factor modification in patients with symptoms of angina. Furthermore, apps such as the ‘My Studies App’ provide healthcare regulatory decision makers with access to real-world patient data.
Hanuel Park, Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Although these decision support apps will be vital in the developed countries, the continuous innovations toward apps that provide medical device-like features are major drivers of the rise of the healthcare app market. Apps that can provide routine healthcare services, in conjunction with an online physician, to regions of the world that lack healthcare facilities are going to push the market forward. Apps will provide medical services anywhere in the world with Wi-Fi.”
Apps such as ‘Peek Vision’, a vision assessment app, and ‘Triage’, a dermatological assessment app, are also making impact in this healthcare technology space.
Park adds: “The healthcare apps space faces many challenges including regulation, reliability and data security. However, wide arrays of healthcare services are being investigated to determine whether they could be made into an app, as a standalone medical feature or an app that will work in collaboration with an online physician. Furthermore, current trends show that many Venture Capitalists (VCs) and investors value the upfront costs of software companies minimal, in comparison to traditional device companies, who require dramatically higher R&D costs.”