Health

How mobile is transforming healthcare

February 15, 2015

North America

February 15, 2015

North America
Frieda Klotz

Deputy editor

Frieda Klotz is a deputy editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, focusing on healthcare, the pharmaceutical industry and technological innovation. Before joining the EIU Frieda worked as a journalist for six years, writing for publications such as the New York Times, the Irish Times, the Daily Telegraph,  the Guardian, the Chronicle of Higher Education and strategy + business magazine. Frieda published a book with Oxford University Press in 2011. She holds a doctorate in literature from the University of Oxford and an undergraduate degree from Trinity College, Dublin.

 

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64% of healthcare executives say mobile health could dramatically improve outcomes by giving people greater access to medical information.

Report Summary

According to a new survey, mobile technology has the potential to profoundly reshape the healthcare industry, altering how care is delivered and received.

Executives in both the public and private sector predict that new mobile devices and services will allow people to be more proactive in attending to their health and well-being.

These technologies promise to improve outcomes and cut costs, and make care more accessible to communities that are currently underserved. Mobile health could also facilitate medical innovation by enabling scientists to harness the power of big data on a large scale.

Still, the path to a mobile future in healthcare will not necessarily be smooth. Privacy concerns, particularly relevant in a healthcare context, are likely to be an issue.

 

Wherever there is a mobile signal, there is the capability for delivering better healthcare.

-Eric J. Topol, Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute

 

Research Methodology

In June 2014, the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a survey about the impact of mobile health; the survey included 144 CEOs, managers, administrators and business development strategists in public and private healthcare, as well as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical device manufacturing, in 23 countries.

Interviewees:

  • Paul Cummings, senior fellow at ICF International 
  • Robert B. McCray, president and CEO of the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance 
  • Young Sohn, president and chief strategy officer at Samsung Electronics 
  • Gigi Sorenson, director of telehealth for Northern Arizona Healthcare
  • Eric J. Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute
  • Dr. Martin Were, chief medical information officer at Ampath in Kenya and assistant associate professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine
  • Robyn Whittaker, programme leader for health informatics and technology at the National Institute for Health Innovation at the University of Auckland

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