mHealth: Unlocking the Potential of Preventive Healthcare

Our world is subject to change, which is an inevitable phenomenon. Regardless of the impact of COVID-19, the 21st century’s third decade was meant to change the way we care about ourselves one way or another. The advent of progressive telecommunication technologies, coupled with the rapid development of IoT, empowers people and healthcare organizations to shift from reactive medicine to proactive care. The so-called mHealth, which stands for mobile health, is the latest trend among mobile health app developers, as demand for progressive healthcare rises exponentially.

Today’s folks have no time to waste commuting to the hospitals, sitting in queues, and waiting impatiently for a diagnosis. mHealth helps set them free from this homage, thus ensuring that healthcare organizations can maximize their benefits by applying a bit of mobile magic. Let’s delve deeper into this topic, as there are undoubtedly many fruitful insights into mHealth, its pros and cons, and the future that awaits it.

A Good Beginning Makes a Good Present

It seems like the use of mobile technology in healthcare was as easy to foresee as a morning fog after nocturnal precipitations. Yet, it took quite some time for us as a society to embrace the potential of mobile technology in guarding our health. It all started in April 2014, when the European Commission launched a public hearing into mobile technology usage within the framework of refining healthcare practices in the European Union. 

All the input from the stakeholders involved was gathered during the session that took place between 10 April and 3 July 2014, as the Commission developed the initial documentation regulating the legal aspect of mHealth for distribution platforms, software vendors, and medical device manufacturers. Mobile healthcare was with us long before the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a robust discussion about its relevance.

On the one hand, the mHealth industry is only seven years old. On the other hand, it has taken significant steps forward over those years and is now knocking hard on the doors of outdated healthcare organizations, ousting them from the competition. Today’s customers want healthcare to be swift, efficient, and proactive, and mobile healthcare ticks those boxes.

What Is mHealth and How Does It Differ from Telehealth?

One of the major dilemmas facing today’s healthcare industry is that many people tend to confuse telehealth and mHealth. We understand that telehealth is a vast domain, but let’s first define what mobile healthcare entails. Put bluntly, mHealth is a subdomain of telehealth, yet it has a particular specification. The World Health Organization has recently developed an official definition of mobile healthcare, stating that it is “the usage of mobile and wireless technologies to support the achievement of health objectives.” The National Institutes of Health found coherence with WHO’s definition, but for one part, adding a bit of specification to the “health objective part” defining it as “health outcomes, healthcare services, and health research.” 

Yet, let’s get back to our ultimate question and shed light of truth upon the difference between telehealth and mHealth. While telehealth refers to all healthcare services provided via the application of modern technology, mobile healthcare primarily focuses on outpatient healthcare services and self-care facilitated by mobile technology. That is, mHealth is all about consumer-centric technologies and gadgets (such as tablets, smartphones, and smartwatches) that enable users to track their health data and have it interpreted by the software inside or a medical professional on the other end of the app. 

Minimizing the need for direct interaction with a physician by taking care of oneself and allowing healthcare organizations to track patients’ health status remotely is what mHealth is all about. Its primary focus is on obtaining information instantly, thereby helping both parties prevent and diagnose diseases swiftly and efficiently. Those wondering why mobile healthcare has become so popular nowadays should know that back in 2015, as per Pew Research Center, almost half of Americans have already had a tablet device, while nine out of every ten have had a smartphone. We’ll certainly talk more about how the mHealth industry will grow in the years to come, but now, let’s focus on the primary fields of mHealth application.

How Is mHealth Used?

It may seem that we have already answered that question when defining mHealth and explaining how it differs from telehealth. Nonetheless, the scope of mobile healthcare applications is remarkably broad, as mobile health app development nowadays extends far beyond the already well-known areas of implementation. As of today, mHealth finds explicit application in:

• Education & Awareness. Have you ever received a pop-up notification from your smartphone saying that the sound levels in your earphones are too high? That’s mobile healthcare apps at their very best, ensuring you stay on top of the factors affecting your health. To be honest, this is quite a hackneyed example of how mHealth advances healthcare education and awareness, as there are many more instances to mention, such as sex education apps, fitness apps, nutrition apps, etc.
• Diagnostic & Treatment Support. mHealth helps medical personnel and provides them with the resources needed to access the latest information on clinical guidelines, analyze data, get diagnostic support, collaborate with colleagues, and interact with patients. Refining medical personnel’s operations is another critical mobile healthcare aspect that eventually improves patients’ lives. 
• Remote Patient Monitoring. Allowing doctors to monitor patients’ health is one of the most important application areas of mHealth, as it facilitates the successful performance of its primary mission: preventive telemedicine via mobile technology. 
• Chronic Disease Management. One of the major obstacles today’s healthcare system experiences on its way to efficiency is the redundant check-ups of patients with chronic diseases; quite inconvenient, to be fair, for the patients themselves. Remote tracking of patients’ conditions saves time and energy for both doctors and patients, while proving highly effective in managing conditions such as chronic cardiovascular diseases.
• Disease & Pandemic Outbreak Tracking. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of mHealth to mitigate the consequences of the already widespread disease. The latest research on the digital apps’ contribution to fighting coronavirus showed that governmental organizations ordered more than 67% of those apps, as they proved to be efficient in managing citizens’ exposure to COVID-19, monitoring the infected patients’ health, conducting research studies, and combating the pandemic spread.
• Healthcare Supply Chain Management. The overall process of healthcare services delivery requires many grounds to be covered, and when it comes to developing countries, the situation is quite lamentable. A study involving 3690 children diagnosed with diarrhea, malaria, and pneumonia showcased that mHealth interventions have positively impacted the treatment process. The patients were divided into two groups, and the one administering digital health solutions reported an 18% improvement in supportive supervision and a 21% increase in diagnosis speed. Moreover, a 2-to 3-fold increase in the proportion of CHWs receiving the ordered supplies was detected.
• Medical Personnel Training & Communication. mHealth can become pivotal in training and communication for frontline healthcare workers (FHW). In accordance with Cyberleninka, they face the “lack of appropriate means to collect data, inadequate access to training and reference materials, poor communication with peers or supervisors to handle situations that are beyond their skills, and difficulty in scheduling household visits and follow-up appointments with patients.” mHealth solutions can make up for each of the training, analysis, and communication scarcities FHWs face in their daily practices, thus improving the quality of care for patients.

The mobile healthcare application field is numerous, as the industry is gradually becoming an integral component of various healthcare-related business subdomains, including fitness, self-care, and women’s health, among others. Every healthcare mobile app development company is now trying to capitalize on the demand for mHealth products, which is significant due to the mHealth products’ ability to create irreplaceable value.

Where mHealth Creates Value and Revenue

The data from Statista shows that mHealth is expected to grow exponentially, primarily because many industries have begun to utilize it. As you can see, general disease management is just one of the many business domains that will tap into the mobile healthcare potential. Modern customers are concerned about lifestyle management, fitness, medication adherence, etc., and they want it all within their smartphones. The world is going mobile, and the healthcare industry cannot remain idle in this endeavor to move faster and come closer to its customers. Hence, we can expect a rapid growth of the mHealth sector by 2025, driven by healthcare clients’ expanding list of requirements for healthcare providers.

Although mHealth is astonishingly popular nowadays, it is of the utmost importance to consider Health’s distant future. What is going to happen with the industry after 2025? Is it not going to shrink in five years, after all the delight about it fades away and becomes nothing more than a matter of people’s daily routine? Regardless of what the opponents might say, the future appears to be bright. The individuals on both the giving and receiving ends of healthcare are looking forward to digital apps becoming ubiquitous. Let’s dwell more on it, shall we?

What’s Next?

mHealth is poised for significant growth, as new market trends emerge and the industry’s monetization gains momentum in the long term. The latest data from Grand View Research indicates that both fitness and medical apps, the two most popular among mobile healthcare customers, are poised to be a hit with the healthcare industry in the years to come. In fact, with these two types of apps succeeding, mHealth’s wider scope of products can not fail to reach the glass ceiling of income maximization charts.

The U.S. mHealth apps market size, by type, 2016 – 2028 (USD Million)

Well, there is nothing to be surprised about here, as digital health continues to find new areas of application daily, thereby enhancing mHealth initiatives around the world. For example, according to a Booz & Company report, it is not only patients who make the most of mHealth usage. Physicians themselves perceive mobile healthcare as a helpful tool to enhance their performance, quality, and convenience. The infographic says it all.

As you can see, mHealth has proven to be effective for both patients and medical personnel. It benefits the clients by preventing them from the redundant runaround to hospitals and physicians while allowing the physicians to spend more time actually treating patients instead of organizing the treatment process.

Moreover, digital health has introduced a multitude of new ways to optimize remote quality care. For example, SMS alert campaigns aimed at influencing patients’ behavior have proven to be statistically more successful than radio and TV advertisements, as they appear to be more personalized.

Harnessing mHealth is a step to take when you’re looking to refine the patients’ experience and ensure that your personnel is satisfied and thus utterly productive. Universal adoption of mHealth leaves us no other choice but to try to predict the trends that will spring among mobile health app developers.

The Trends to Expect

We can expect a range of mHealth-associated trends to emerge shortly, driven by the immense demand for mobile healthcare solutions from both patients and healthcare professionals. The expectations are high, so the supply must meet the demand halfway with the neoteric offers made to every stakeholder involved in the healthcare delivery process.

• Home-based monitoring systems;
• Emergency response systems;
• Refined medical HRM systems;
• Synchronous and asynchronous diagnostic and support solutions;
• Pharmaceutical supply chain integrity control systems;
• Health extension services;
• Healthcare education/mLearning incentives;
• Health promotion apps;
• Refined chronic care management solutions;
• Individualized lifestyle control and support solutions;
• Point-of-care clinician support systems;
• Advanced training and communication for medical personnel;

mHealth Pros & Cons

Regardless of how cloudless everything may appear, there are actually some drawbacks to consider when discussing mHealth. Yet, it seems that the benefits of mobile healthcare products overshadow them. Let’s have a closer look at the pros and cons of mHealth product development for your healthcare business.

There are numerous pros and cons to mHealth, but what seems to be a con for one company may actually be an advantage for your business to utilize. For example, the low quality of digital health apps available for download leaves the opportunity open for you to create a reliable one and win the customers’ loyalty. Yet, you will need a reliable software vendor to design a refined mHealth solution, as it takes both experience and innovative thinking. The rest is up to you, as both patients and doctors are eager to test your product.

Conclusion

As you’ve finished reading this article, your smartwatch may have detected a slight deviation in your heart rate and displayed a pop-up notification urging you to stand up and move a little. Or it might not, but you will surely move today, and your smartphone will measure the distance you will cover to present you with monthly movement statistics eventually. mHealth is already here, even if you think that you have nothing in common with it. It has permeated every aspect of the healthcare industry, as the industry itself has undergone immense changes.

Even a run-of-the-mill healthcare mobile app development company now understands that end-users, just like healthcare providers, want to change their healthcare habits. Unlocking the potential of preventive healthcare driven by mobile data is the strategy to win the business competition. It will enable you to deliver the best possible healthcare services to your customers while keeping your personnel satisfied. Is there a better success formula? We don’t think so!