By Stephen Hanks, Contributing Reporter
Remember back in 2009 when Apple began using the slogan, “There’s an app for that” in their ads? Six years later that phrase can be applied more than ever, and no segment has more to gain from it than the rapidly growing medical apps market.
According to a recent report from Kalorama Information, a leading publisher of market research in medical industries, the mhealth apps market is estimated at close to $500 million for 2015 — up from just $85 million in 2010, the same year Apple slapped a trademark on that felicitous slogan. Furthermore, the Kalorama report projects an annual average growth rate of 27.8 percent through 2020, meaning mhealth apps could close this decade as a $1.7 billion industry.
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“Medical apps have grown a tad faster than other app categories,” said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama, who adds that the mhealth share of the total app market could reach 2.71 percent by 2021.
What is driving such impressive growth? “Price and a willing user base,” said Carlson. The majority of that user base still comes from consumers, but according to the report, health care professionals are an increasing piece of the mhealth app use pie.
A recent report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics said that smartphone users can now access more than 165,000 apps to help them stay fit, healthy, and monitor a medical condition. The Kalorama study said that today upward of 70 percent of physicians and medical workers use medical mobile apps on a regular basis, up by approximately 20 percent since 2010. The only thing preventing even wider use of app technology among doctors and health care providers, according to the IMS Institute, are concerns about a lack of research and data protection.
“Even so, health app use is shifting from being a novelty to more of a core part of care for many people,” Murray Aitken, the IMS Institute’s executive director
, told the Associated Press.
Need more evidence of potential mhealth app growth among medical professionals? According to PricewaterhouseCooper’s Health Research Institute (HRI), the FDA has approved or cleared nearly 100 medical apps. The HRI sees the FDA reviewing a record number of mobile health apps in order to meet demand, and reports that 86 percent of clinicians believe mobile apps will play a major role in a physician’s practice over the next five years.
