During a panel session I moderated last week, Parks Associates Director of Mobile & Health Research Harry Wang shared a number of metrics and industry trends with attendees at the second annual World Congress Mobile Health Summit in Boston, Massachusetts.
Wang began by breaking down the wireless health industry into three specific categories based on the type of wireless technology used: Body Area Networks (BANs), Personal Area Networks (PANs), Local/Wide Area Networks (WANs/PANs). Body Area Network mobile health apps and services make use of short-range wireless technologies and include CardioMEMS, IsisBiopolymer, Toumaz, and MicroCHIPS, according to Wang. Mobile health companies that work in the PAN realms of devices include InRange, Voluntis, Diabetech, LifeWatch and CardioNet, Wang said. Epocrates, iTriage, ADAM, and AllOne Health (no longer in existence), are all examples of companies that leverage LAN or WAN networks, which include mobile operator networks as well as WiFi networks, for mobile health services.
Perhaps the most interesting revelation from Wang's survey of consumers was the percentage of people who already use medical devices like pulse oximeters or blood glucose meters who actually transfer the device data to their mobile phones. Only 4 percent of the 972 survey respondents said they moved the data to their cell phone.
Wang shared some top-line results from a recent survey that Parks Associates published: 21 percent of smartphone owners polled said they had downloaded a fitness or workout related smartphone app. The survey polled 387 smartphone owners. Here's how the other apps stacked up in terms of downloads:
Food and nutrition: 20 percent
Health news/Information portals: 12 percent
Healthcare services: 12 percent
Stress-related or brain stimulus games: 11 percent
Personal health records: 9 percent
Medication/drug related: 9 percent
Reference about medical conditions: 7 percent
Vital sign collections: 7 percent
Dental care related: 5 percent
Smoking cessations: 4 percent
None/never: 60 percent
For more on Parks personal health research, view their portfolio here
