NEWS

Around the world, healthcare systems are overburdened, costly and incapable of meeting the needs of a growing population. According to a new study from The Boston Consulting Group and Telenor Group, mobile health technology can offer sizeable benefits to all countries, lead to economic growth and promise a better life for individuals.

Among the key findings:

• The necessary infrastructure is already in everyone’s hands: 7.4 billion mobile subscriptions projected by 2015
• The technology richness and network capacity is sufficient, both on simple feature phones and on smart devices
• Currently, more than 500 mobile health projects are taking place around the world
• Costs in elderly care can be reduced by 25% with mobile healthcare
• Maternal and perinatal mortality can be reduced by 30%
• Twice as many rural patients can be reached per doctor
• Tuberculosis treatment compliance can be improved by 30-70%
• 30% of smartphone users are likely to use “wellness apps” by 2015
• Costs related to data collection can be reduced by 24%
• Smartphone is the most popular technology among doctors since the stethoscope