Communications and Technology Industry Research

Today’s stressful and fast paced life has made the health of an average human being vulnerable to a number of diseases and disorders. Whether they belong to any specific age, sex, ethnicity, race, education or location, it doesn’t reduce their chances to suffer from obesity, diabetes or heart and other chronic diseases. Still, what is remarkable is that technology is helping them to improve their wellbeing in innovative and enhanced ways.

‘CTIA-The Wireless Association,” an international nonprofit membership organization representing the wireless communications industry since 1984, has announced that the wireless industry is reforming healthcare by using mobile health products and services to improve access and quality of care and lower down costs. In its semi-annual survey, the organization found that there are more wireless devices in the US at 322.9 million than the total number of Americans at 315.5 million, hence connecting health and wireless technology might prove to be an effective measure in offering enhanced health services to the people.

Doctors can benefit by wireless health technology as it helps them keep a close eye upon the patients even when they are present at far off locations, while it also helps the patients in saving the time and money they’d have to otherwise spend while visiting the doctor personally. Similarly, medical test reports and other information about the patients can be delivered to the doctors in real time through wireless technology, who can immediately advise the patients to check their glucose level or take their blood pressure.

Recently, CTIA (News - Alert) conducted a survey along with Harris in which it was found that, according to the physicians, over 25 percent of their total patients would benefit from wireless services. Also, around 80 percent of doctors and 89 percent of specialists emphasized in the same survey that investment in mHealth wireless technology must be continued as it can improve and promote better healthcare in a much effective way.

People living in rural and remote areas usually don’t have a convenient access to competent healthcare professionals, which makes the wireless medical devices an important tool that allows them to connect to the best of medical professionals sitting right inside their residence.

At present, over 17,000 mobile apps are available for users that help them in tracking weight-loss, exercise and fitness progress or to managing chronic disease. With the help of some of these apps, diabetic patients can record their daily blood sugar levels. In case the levels are dangerous, the patients are immediately alerted with suggested steps and tips to prevent the condition from getting worse.

Recently, Juniper Research (News - Alert), a research firm announced that the combination of the smartphone and the app stores has created a vibrant market for mHealth apps which are forecast to reach 142 million downloads globally by 2016. The company added that apps already cover a wide range of mHealth use cases, varying from medical calculators to monitoring software; although in the future, hardware peripherals attached to the smartphone will greatly extend the capabilities of these apps.