115 Mind Blowing mHealth and Telehealth Statistics and Trends as the third installment of our 4 part Mind Blowing HIT Stats and Facts series.



Thanks to the rise of telehealth and mHealth, a transformation in the delivery of health information and services is quickly taking place, both in the US and abroad. Telehealth use in the US alone is expected to double in the next two years, according to Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). So what’s to come from this rather swift shift in the healthcare landscape?

In this third edition of HIT Consultant’s Mind Blowing HIT Stats and Trends series, we take a look at the facts and figures surrounding both telehealth and mHealth to shed light on some potential answers to that rather large question. While the power of both movements has yet to be realized, the influence from their emergence is already evident. Take a look:

mHealth Statistics & Trends

HIMSS Analytics conducted the web-based and telephone-based research with 180 IT professionals in October and November 2012 responded to the 2nd Annual HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey. Survey findings include:

1. Two-thirds of health IT executives indicate that the use of mobile technology will substantially or dramatically impact the delivery of healthcare in the future

2. Use of mobile devices by physicians to view patient information or access non-protected health information is widespread, and the percent of clinicians using apps to actively engage in direct patient care has grown in the past year in several key areas, including:

3. Collection of data at the bedside (45 percent compared to 30 percent);

4. Use of bar code reader on mobile devices (38 percent compared to 23 percent);

5. Monitoring data from medical devices (34 percent compared to 27 percent); and

6. Capture visual representation of patient data (27 percent compared to 13 percent).

7. 36% reported allowing patients/consumers the ability to access information using a mobile device, up from 32 percent one year ago.

8. 13% of respondents indicated that their organizations had developed an app for patient/consumer use.

9. Respondents continue to characterize their mobile maturity as average – 3.33 on a scale of one to seven, where seven is highly mature.

10. One-quarter of respondents reported that all data captured via mobile devices is integrated directly into the organization’s EHR.

11. Nearly all IT professionals reported that their organizations supply mobile devices to clinicians to support day-to-day work activities.

12. Two-thirds reported their organization has a mobile technology plan in place, up from the 38% of respondents that reported this in 2011.

13. More than one-quarter of respondents (27%) are currently implementing a mobile technology plan.

14. Use of apps by clinicians is widespread at organizations; approximately half of survey respondents reported they will increase their use of apps in the next 12 months.

15. 5% of respondents now offer an app marketplace, and 11 percent are considering the creation of a marketplace in the future.

Source: 2nd Annual HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey

16. 70% of Americans are self-trackers, but only a fifth are using technology like mobile devices

17. 9% of cell phone owners say they receive any text updates or alerts about health or medical issues.

18. 31% of cell phone owners have used their phone to look for health information

19. 17% of cell phone owners had used their phones to look for health advice

20. 52% gather health information on their phones, compared with 6% of non‐smartphone owners

21. 19% of smartphone owners have at least one health app on their phone.

22. Most popular type of mhealth apps include:

Source: Pew Research Center

23. More than 100 providers declare securing patient data a primary concern as clinicians increasingly use mobile devices to access medical information

24. Methods Providers Use to Protect Data Accessed by Mobile Devices include:

Source: KLAS: 2012 Mobile Applications: Can Enterprise Vendors Keep Up?

A recent KLAS survey of 105 CIOs , IT specialists, and physicians in the US, found that:

25. 70% used mobile devices to access their electronic health records, including customers of nearly every major EHR (Epic, Cerner, GE, Allscripts, Siemens, MEDITECH, and McKesson)

26. 94%, were supporting Apple

27. 49% and 44% supporting Android and Microsoft

Source: KLAS

28. Employees increased their steps by over 40% according to one insurance company who ran a scientific experiment with FitBit, to test if employees who use devices get healthier than those who don’t.

Source: California Report

29. 69% of hospitals indicating that their nurses use their personal mobile devices

30. 96% of hospitals interviewed believe that 1st generation TabletPCs were not the right device to support bedside nursing.

Source: Spyglass Consulting Group

mHealth Patents

31. The number of mHealth patents issued by the Patent Office has increased steadily since 2000 (when the number of mHealth patent applications was negligible), and will continue to surge until at least 2014.

32. Large companies are winning the mHealth patent race by obtaining the vast majority of newly-issued mHealth patents.

33. Intellectual Ventures, a non-practicing patent aggregator, is patenting aggressively in the mHealth space. Licensing demands and litigation from IV (and possibly other NPEs) are sure to follow.

34. Almost half of the top twenty mHealth patent holders are not mHealth companies, or even medical device developers.

35. The incidence of mHealth patent infringement conflicts likely will increase as companies become more profitable and patent portfolios mature.

36. The volume of patent litigation in the mHealth industry is low relative to related industries such as the computer, smartphone, and medical device industries.

Source: Mobihealthnews

Text Messaging

In a survey of 106 physicians at pediatric hospitals, researchers from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita found that:

37. 27% of named texting their preferred method for brief communications

38. 23% favored hospital-issued pagers

39. 21% that said face-to-face conversation.

40. 57% reported sending or received work-related text messages

41. 12% send at least 10 messages per shift

42. 5% said they received more than 20 messages each time during a typical shift

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics

43. A new meta-analysis of 11 studies shows that mobile device-enabled interventions can help increase people’s physical activity according to study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research

44. Smartphones are #9 on Health Tech Hazards list thanks to texting during surgery

Source: ERCI Institute

45. 3 million people are expected to be using smartphone-powered remote patient monitoring devices by 2016

46. 44 million mobile health applications will be downloaded this year, and about 142 million will be downloaded in 2016

47. Electronic health records will become an important component of mobile health offerings

48. Increased use of smartphones for remote patient monitoring will lower costs by reducing the need for expensive dedicated medical devices

49. Further guidance from FDA on the regulation of mobile health apps will help boost usage

50. The greater use of smartphones will increase remote monitoring of chronic diseases such as diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

51. Wearables will be a $1.5 billion market by 2014, up from just $800 million this year.

Source: Juniper Research

Key Drivers of mHealth are:

52. . Consumer Demand

53. . Affordable Distribution

54. . Free Information

55. Knowledge is Power

56. Social Networks

Source: Why Wireless Health Matters

Reasons Physicians Will Embrace the iPad Mini

57. Portability

58. Display Capability

59. Better Buy-In

60. Address BYOD

Source: HIT Consultant

Touching Lives through Mobile Health: Assessment of Global Market Opportunity PWC report

61. PWC predicts mHealth global revenue to reach $23 billion in 2017

62. Diagnosis services are expected to comprise nearly 15% of the mobile health market with US $3.4 billion in revenues in 2017

63. A majority of the revenues from Diagnosis services are expected to come from call-centre and mobile telemedicine solutions with approximately US$ 1.7 billion and US$ 1.6 billion in revenue in 2017.

64. Treatment will be the third largest revenue opportunity with around 10% of the total mobile health market share. Wellness and Prevention will comprise approximately 3% and 1% respectively of the total mobile health market.

65. Healthcare Systems Strengthening services and applications are expected to contribute about 6% to the overall mobile health market (corresponding to US$ 1.4 billion) in 2017.

66. Among opportunities in Healthcare Systems Strengthening, Healthcare Practitioner Support will have the largest share with about 5% of the total mobile health market opportunity (US$ 1.1 billion), followed by Administration, Healthcare Surveillance Support, and Emergency Response

67. Mobile operators are expected to be the key beneficiaries of the expected growth in the mobile health market and command about 50% share of the overall market, corresponding to US$ 11.5 billion, in 2017.

68. For mobile operators, a majority of the revenue, nearly US$ 8.8 billion, will accrue from their revenue share from Monitoring services. Diagnosis and Treatment solutions will also be attractive opportunities for operators, and contribute US$ 1 billion and US$ 0.9 billion to operator revenues.

69. 75% of current mobile health deployments in Africa focus on improving the efficiency of healthcare workers and systems

70. Current status of mobile health projects in Africa split by countries where they are implemented

71. Solutions that help spread prevention and awareness messages have also been widely deployed and comprise about 20% of the mobile health developments in the African region

72. Patient treatment and remote monitoring solutions constitute almost 60% of the total mobile health deployments in Europe.

73. The UK leads in mobile health development in Europe, with different kinds of solutions being offered and services being delivered through varied means, from simple SMS to complex apps.

74. 60% of mobile health deployment solutions in Latin America are targeted towards strengthening healthcare systems and include applications that aid healthcare practioners in storing and retrieving patient records and supporting decision-making.

75. 27% of mobile health deployment solutions in Latin America constitute remote monitoring of chronic disease patients, aiding the elderly through devices and services, and pill dispensers that remind users through SMS and generate adherence reports.

76. Almost 40% of the solutions deployed work towards strengthening the healthcare systems in the US

77. 25% of mobile health solutions aid monitoring and treatment of patients

78. Current status of mobile health projects in the US

Source: PWC Report: Touching Lives through Mobile Health: Assessment of Global Market Opportunity

79. Top 5 mHealth Regulatory Issues for 2013

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS)

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)

Source: mHIMSS

80. 5 Reasons Why Your Consumer Health App Will Fail To Change Behavior

You are not solving a real problem You are solve trying too many problems You are not providing your users with data they can action Your app is too complicated to use Your solution is too easy to clone

Source: Healthy Startups

81. Key Barriers to Implementation of mHealth

Priorities

Knowledge

Policy

Cost Effectiveness

Legal

Operating

Demand

Technical Expertise

Infrastructure

Source: [x]cube LABS

82. 5 Common Threads of Success for Consumer Health and Medical Apps

All Health and Medical Apps Should Be Seen As Components Of A Digital Health Ecosystem The Adoption and Success of both consumer and medical apps will defend upon demonstration of reliability and efficacy Successful health, fitness, and medical apps all require sustainable business models Behavior change must be a goal of all these apps Maximizing the power of app-generated data is critical

Source: Dr. David Lee Scher, MD

Telehealth Statistics and Trends

83. The global telehealth market is expected to grow steadily over the next several years and reach $2.5 billion by 2018

84. The global telehealth market was valued at $736 million in 2011.

85. In 2011, telehealth table devices cost about $350 and the average price of the software was about $75 per unit

86. The telehealth services market will grow from $7 billion in 2011 to nearly $16 billion in 2016.

Source: Companies & Markets

According to U.K. Dept. of Health Study:

87. Using remote monitoring technology to keep tabs on patients’ blood sugar and cardiopulmonary disease can reduce the risk of patient mortality by up to 45%

Telehealth can deliver:

88. 15% reduction in emergency room visits

89. 20% reduction in emergency admissions

90. 14% reduction in elective admissions

91. 14% reduction in bed days

92. 8% reduction in tariff costs.

Source: U.K. Department of Health

93. 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 according to a study by Kalorama Information

According to the American Hospitals Association:

94. 70% of the “most wired” hospitals in America already provide telehealth.

A previous pilot study conducted by the NHS reviewed three cities with over 6,000 patients suffering from three primary conditions: diabetes, heart failure or COPD. The results include:

95. Remote monitoring reduced mortality rates by 45%

96. 15% reduction in emergency room visits

97. 20% reduction in emergency admissions

98. 14% reduction in bed days

99. 8% reduction in total costs per patient

Source: NHS

100. Patients who receive telemonitoring services and blood pressure management support from a pharmacist are more likely to lower their blood pressure than those who do not receive the extra support, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2012,

101. After six months, the study found that 71.8% of patients in the group that received telemonitoring support had lowered their blood pressure to healthy levels, compared with 45.2% of patients in the control group.

Source: American Heart Association

102. Top Areas for Growth in Telehealth Market

Home-based care and disease management monitoring;

Remote physician or specialist services;

Personal emergency response systems;

Video diagnostic consultations; and

Remote cardiac services

Source: Frost & Sullivan

Telehealth Adoption Challenges

103. Some regulations require that physicians be licensed in the state where patients are treated, limiting the use of telehealth to in-state treatment.

104. In addition, insurance coverage for telehealth varies, with some insurers only covering telehealth in rural areas.

105. Moreover, some patients refuse to use telehealth, and some physicians are wary of the technology’s shortcomings.

Source: iHealthBeat

Study: Telemonitoring Might Not Reduce ED Visits, Hospitalizations

The study found that both groups had similar rates of hospitalizations and ED visits.

106. 64% of the patients in the telemonitoring group were hospitalized or visited the ED, compared with 57% of the control group.

107. Researchers also found that about 15% of the patients in the telemonitoring group died during the course of the study, compared with 4% of the patients in the control group.

Source: Archives of Internal Medicine

Using Telehealth in ICUs

108. Combined implementation and first year of operation costs for a Tele-ICU program of $50,000 to $100,000 per monitored ICU-bed.

109. Changes in patient care costs after Tele-ICU implementation ranged from a $3000 reduction to a $5600 increase in hospital cost per patient.

110. VHA data suggested a cost for implementation and first year of operation of $70,000 to $87,000 per-ICU bed depending on depreciations methods applied.

Source: Chest Journal

Robot Healthcare

A survey by www.CouponCodes4u.com of 1,723 Americans, aged 18-30, found:

111. About one third of Americans are willing to receive some of their healthcare from robots

112. 98% said they would receive robot care if it meant lower co-pays and health insurance costs

113. 34% said that they would opt for care from a remote presence virtual and independent telemedicine assistant robot (RP-VITA), if given the choice, while

114. 5% of respondents claimed to be “indifferent.”-

Source: CouponsCodes4u

115. 8 Telehealth Trends from the Trade Show Trenches

1. Patient Centered Tools 2. The Financial Side 3. Health & Wellness 4. Privacy & Security 5. Going Mobile 6. In the clouds 7. Bringing down the silos 8. The Social Network

The last and final installment will be social media.

Featured image credit: meremortalblog