The global market for patient engagement solutions was valued at $7.4 billion in 2015, according to Grand View Research, and is expected to rise to $39.3 billion by 2024, a more than fivefold increase over nine years.

Mobile health will be one driver of that growth, Grand View writes in an online summary of the research.

"Key end-users of this sector are payers, providers, and individual users," the firm writes. "The individual users are projected to register marked growth attributable to the increasing use of mobile healthcare. However, the providers held the largest share in 2015 and are poised to exhibit a rapid growth pace with a CAGR of over 22 percent."

Grand View gives a number of different possible reasons for the quick growth of the market, including increasing investments from developing nations and actions from the federal government, including the Readmission Reduction Program initiated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and programs like the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), which is part of the Affordable Care Act. The rising incidence of chronic conditions is also a factor.

The research firm breaks patient engagement technology into three delivery modes: web-based, cloud-based, and in-person. Programs delivered via the web are the largest today, accounting for 75 percent of the market in 2015. But cloud-based offerings will be the fastest growing, they wrote, with a 20 percent growth over the forecast period. Between hardware, software, and services, software is expected to grow the fastest.

In terms of regions, North America currently leads, accounting for 40 percent of the market for patient engagement offerings. But both Europe and the Asia Pacific region are on the rise, with public health systems like NHS driving growth in Europe and Asian growth being driven by "increasing disposable income, rising geriatric population, and the growing demand for improved healthcare solutions." Asia-Pacific is predicted to be the fastest growing region, at a 20 percent CAGR.

In 2024, Grand View also expects the smart inhaler market to be worth $3.56 billion and the connected device market in general to be worth $612 billion.