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GSMA: M-health to reach $23B by 2017

Mobile technology will play a significant role in the provisioning of healthcare services globally, according to a new report from the GSMA. The industry association noted in its report, “Touching Lives through Mobile Health: Assessment of the Global Market Opportunity,” that the growth of the m-health market will lead to $23 billion in revenue opportunities by 2017.

GSMA executive director Jeanine Vos said that mobile technology will be a key enabler of healthcare delivery by 2017, reaching every corner of the globe. Vos suggests that mobile technology offers the ability to deliver highly effective, scalable and affordable healthcare beyond the confines of a hospital or doctor’s surgery.

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According to the report, which was prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the provisioning of pervasive m-health services and applications worldwide could provide mobile operators with revenues worth approximately $11.5 billion by 2017. Device vendors could benefit from a revenue opportunity of $6.6 billion, content and application providers of $2.6 billion, and healthcare providers of $2.4 billion by 2017.

The survey also notes that Europe could become the largest m-health region by 2017 with revenues of $6.9 billion, followed by Asia-Pacific region with revenues of $6.8 billion, North America with $6.5 billion, Latin America at $1.6 billion and Africa at $1.2 billion.

Key points
In order to reach this target, the GSMA explains that governments, regulators and healthcare providers need to work with mobile operators and organizations in the broader m-health ecosystem, including device vendors and content and application players, to support the roll out and adoption of new m-health services.

The association listed several key factors that include government support; regulatory support to proactively address the issues that currently limit the growth of m-health services; healthcare industry acceptance; and user adoption that will help drive the exponential growth and market opportunity for m-health.

The GSMA noted monitoring services will account for 65% of the market m-health market by 2017, with diagnostic services accounting for 15% of the global m-health market.

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