Smartphone apps poised to improve healthcare

Smartphone use will reach 1.4 billion in 5 years, according to research by research2guidance, and 500 million of those users will use healthcare-related applications.

“Our findings indicate that the long-expected mobile revolution in healthcare is set to happen,” says Ralf-Gordon Jahns, the firm’s head of research. “Both healthcare providers and consumers are embracing smartphones as a means to improving healthcare.”

Forty-three percent of mobile health applications are designed for health professionals, to enable them to participate in continuing medical education, monitor conditions remotely, and otherwise manage healthcare, according to the report, “Global Mobile Health Market Report 2010-2015.”

About 17,000 mobile health apps are available in major app stores, according to the company, and 74% of them must be purchased.