With the ubiquity of mobile phones influencing almost every aspect of human life, mHealth has emerged as a popular new tool for ensuring physical and emotional wellbeing of individuals across the globe.
With the ubiquity of mobile phones influencing almost every aspect of human life, mHealth has emerged as a popular new tool for ensuring physical and emotional wellbeing of individuals across the globe. North America has been one of the foremost adopters of mHealth and in 2019, the North America mHealth market was estimated to be worth more than $11.3 billion. It is projected to surge at a historic CAGR of over 39.5% between 2020 and 2026. The market is expected to surpass $ 113 billion by 2026.
The following top four trends have been aiding the North America mHealth market outlook:
Driven by popularity, mobile apps to remain aloft during and after the pandemic
Based on platform, the mobile apps segment held the largest portion in the North America mHealth market in 2019, accounting for nearly 69% of the total revenue. The escalating popularity of mobile-based health apps is responsible for the remarkable growth of this segment. Over the upcoming years, mHealth mobile apps are likely to retain their widescale usage due to the fast multiplication of digital audiences using apps for tracking and pursuing their goals related to fitness, sports, and wellbeing. This is expected to fuel the advancement of the North America mHealth market size through the forecast timeframe.
Disease and epidemic outbreak segment to exhibit rapid growth
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for contactless consultations has resulted in an uptick in the number of new users of mHealth. A recent study conducted by the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital’s Motion Analysis Lab suggests that mHealth technologies possess the potential for mitigating COVID-19 as well as future pandemics. Use of mHealth is an ideal alternative in the monitoring of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and other diseases as it can predict escalation of symptoms, enabling earlier intervention, significantly boosting the outcome.
This can be one of the primary growth drivers of the North America mHealth market, since the disease and epidemic outbreak segment is expected to contribute a handsome amount toward the total market revenue by 2026.
Physicians to claim foremost position among end-users due to real-time access
The major end-user segments of the North America mHealth market are patients, physicians, government, research centers, pharmacies, and insurance companies among others. The physicians segment is anticipated to shoot up rapidly, thanks to the need of the hour for remote monitoring of patients and offering consultation services through mobile applications. In 2019, the segment held a share of more than 30% of the total North America mHealth market share. Real-time access to patients has been inducing physicians to utilize mHealth apps for diagnosing and treating patients conveniently via mobile apps.
US to lead the regionally due to development of advanced healthcare IT infrastructure
In 2019, the US collected a whopping revenue of about $10 billion, and is projected to keep growing at a consistent rate over the forthcoming timeline as well. The advanced healthcare IT infrastructure in the region is pushing the demand for mHealth. Moreover, as the nation has registered the highest number of COVID-19 cases, the North America mHealth market is expected to further witness an upsurge as patients, healthcare practitioners, and healthcare centers have been embracing the mHealth technologies during the global crisis to reduce costs, improve quality care, and maintain physical distancing.
COVID-19 has been instrumental in accelerating the growth of the North America mHealth market size, since even after the end of the pandemic, mHealth will continue to gain momentum owing to the long-term structural changes across the healthcare industry.