Asia's Mobile Technologies for Healthcare Market Forecast at $7 Billion

Reuters has reported that the Asian market for mobile technologies that enable people to monitor and manage their health is expected to grow exponentially in the near future.

In an interview with Reuters, Jeanine Vos, head of the mobile health unit at the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), said technologies that allow doctors to remotely monitor and consult with their patients are finding their way to Asia.

Quoting a study conducted by GSMA and PricewaterhouseCoopers that will be released in December, Vos told Reuters that the Asian mobile healthcare technology market, which stands at under $500 million now, is expected to hit $7 billion by 2017. She said 55 percent of the market is expected to involve health monitoring services and 24 percent, diagnostic services. China, expected to have nearly 5 billion connected devices by 2020, will be the key driver of the growth.

Companies that stand to gain from the expansion of mobile technologies for healthcare purposes include mobile operators, device manufacturers, software developers and healthcare providers, Vos said. Companies already providing such services include France Telecom's Orange, Japan's NTT Docomo and India's Apollo Hospitals.

Despite the positive outlook, Vos told Reuters that one impediment to the adoption of such technologies in the region is convincing governments and clinicians to come on board. She said healthcare policies and regulations that promote and enable the use of mobile technologies are keys to widespread adoption.