The global mobile health market is expected to top $49 billion by 2020, according to research firm Grand View Research, which made the same prediction 18 months ago. In 2012 the firm valued the global mobile health market at $1.95 billion. Grand View predicts the market will have a compound annual growth rate of nearly 48 percent from 2013 to 2010.

The increasingly large aging population and the groups rising rate of chronic conditions, including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, will drive the market, according to the firm. New connected medical devices will help drive it too.

Mobile health growth will be curbed, however, by a growing need to keep health data secure. Another challenge mobile health faces is affordability and availability of healthcare services, Grand View writes.

Worldwide, mobile operators made up 48 percent of the overall mobile health market in 2012, largely thanks to revenue from monitoring services for independent aging -- mPERS.

As Grand View predicted in 2014, the Asia Pacific market is likely going to grow faster than other regions, because of its lack of healthcare providers coupled with a burgeoning rural population. North America will still command significant marketshare, according to the firm, because of an increase in both health projects and smartphone adoption.