Healthcare Unwired: Delivering Healthcare Anywhere #mHealth

I'm now in San Diego and I'm attending the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference. As a physician champion for the HCPLive Network, I'm excited to blog about some of the highlights from this meeting. You can also follow updates about the 2nd mHealth Networking Conference on HCPLive.com.

This morning, Christopher Wasden, Managing Director, Strategy & Innovation Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers gave a presentation titled, "Healthcare Unwired: New Business Models to Deliver Care Anywhere."

Here are from snippets from the PwC Health Research Institute (HRI) report titled, Healthcare Unwired: New Business Models to Deliver Care Anywhere:

• The consumer market for mobile/remote monitoring is estimated to be $7.7 to $43 billion. It's $7.7 billion if consumers are paying out-of-pocket. It's $43 billion if we get additional payers involved.
  
• 40% of consumers said they would be willing to pay for remote monitoring devices and a monthly service fee to send data automatically to their physicians. 
• The early adopters of mHealth are not the patients who are have multiple chronic conditions. The early adopters tend to be young, healthy men (we love our gadgets, don't we?)
• The growth area for mHealth is in preventive health and wellness.

There are 3 business models to consider if we wish to effectively deliver healthcare everywhere:

1. Consumer-centric products and services.
2. Operational/clinical
3. Infrastructure

Those new business models will have different goals around:

• Transaction
• Knowledge vs. Intelligence
  
• Communication
• Integration

One of the case studies focuses around pain management. Meridian Health collaborated with Cypak and Best Buy to use iMPak's Health Journal for Pain (an electronic diary for patients). They found that patients were able to record and communicate their pain with their providers while they were at home.
Another case study focused around a pharmaceutical company (Merck Serono) using Bluetooth and nurse reminder calls to boost adherence to injectable drugs. They found better clinical integration and improved care provided in the home setting.

The final case study focused around a pharmaceutical company (Shire) that created an iPhone app for Gaucher's disease. This app was designed to enhance patient care and speed insurance approval. They developed an app called OnePath that tracks patient health metrics and provides realtime information to physicians. The app also connects patients who have this rare condition.

If you're interested in reading the full report, you can access it here (registration required, but the report is complimentary).

I want to thank Epocrates for sponsoring these blog posts from the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference. Epocrates, Inc. develops clinical information and decision support tools that enable healthcare professionals to find answers more quickly and confidently at the point of care.