We’re used to reading about the prominence of mobile phones in healthcare in the U.S. But in India, with close to one billion mobile phone users in the country (almost 80 percent of the population has them), the population is also beginning to embrace mHealth for improving access and quality of healthcare in the country.
India isn’t too far behind developed nations like the U.S., with only half a billion more users. China, Brazil and the U.S. have all adopted mHealth in varying degrees, according to Neelesh Bhandari.
Recent studies that have included physicians and payors found that “consumers are ready to adopt mobile health faster than the health industry is ready to adapt.” A pwc survey discovered that roughly half of patients surveyed believe mHealth will improve the cost, quality and convenience of their healthcare in the next three years, and six in 10 doctors and payors think widespread adoption in their countries is inevitable in the near future, but that it will take time.
mHealth is poised to save healthcare systems around the world big bucks. A 2011 study by Anna Sommers and Peter Cunningham released by the National Institute for Health Care Reform found that hospital readmissions within a month of discharge have cost over $16 billion each year, as Steff Deschenes reported.
But with mHealth used to monitor patients after their release from hospitals, readmissions dropped in some cases by 50 percent in the U.S.
China scored the highest in openness and awareness of mHealth, along with higher use of it, compared to India, though Bhandari noted that “the environment in India was felt to be most encouraging of all countries.”
Another study showed that Indians expect mHealth to have the largest impact on healthcare, with 60 percent of Indians feeling that widespread adoption of mHealth services is inevitable in the near future, and 92 percent of physicians in that country expected mHealth to have a huge presence in the nation within three years.
Interestingly, patients in emerging markets like India and China are more willing to pay for mHealth than their counterparts in the developed countries.
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey
