mHealth Tools Projected To Save $500 Billion In Productivity By 2021

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | January 8, 2013

The constantly changing and quickly evolving mobile health industry is often considered the Wild West of healthcare, with new technologies and innovative services shifting the practice of preventative medicine from the doctor’s office to the patient’s pocket.  As increasing numbers of patients trust their smartphones as much as their doctors and physicians adopt mobile technology at a similarly rapid pace, the $1.2 billion mobile health market is predicted to expand tenfold by 2018, bringing huge savings in productivity gains by decreasing hospital admissions, better managing chronic diseases, and reducing the time needed for communication and data retrieval.

A newly released report by Deloitte’s Center for Health Solutions projects that telehealth tools, home health monitoring devices, smartphones and tablets, and videoconferencing will expand the reach of physicians into a patient’s everyday life, resulting in $305 billion in savings due to reduced travel time, better logistics, improved communications, and faster decision making...