Outsource Magazine Issue 34 - (Page 44)

The Bigger PicTure The mobile revolution is reaching the healthcare space - with a little help from the crowd... Mithun Sridharan, pliXos Mithun Sridharan is a Consulting Partner at plixos GmbH, an outsourcing advisory consulting company based in Munich, Germany. He is a regular writer for Outsource online. T he increasing adoption and use of mobile technologies is disrupting the healthcare industry. This phenomenon has created innovative ways, channels and tools to deliver healthcare cost-effectively even in the remotest of places. A quick search for "health" on the Apple iTunes store will result in over 43,000 apps pertaining to some form of DIY healthcare. The number of app downloads demonstrates that there is a high demand for such applications. Realising this growing interest, independent app developers and companies, such as Nike and Walgreens, alike have released several apps around weight loss and general physical fitness. These apps help people manage their own health and well-being, promote healthy lifestyle, and enable access to useful information when and where they need it. According to the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), mobile healthcare apps were downloaded an estimated 660 million times as of June 2013. By 2015, 500 million smartphone users worldwide are expected to regularly use some healthcare application; by 2018, industry experts estimate this figure will grow to 1.7 billion mobile users, who will use mobile healthcare applications on a fairly regular basis. These users include general consumers, patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals. These developments mark a turning point in the history of healthcare industry. The Wall Street Journal cites a case experienced by Dr. Eric Topol, cardiologist and Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, California. Dr. Topol's patients started e-mailing him the results of do-ityourself (DIY) electrocardiograms. To cite Dr. Topol: "I am getting emails from people saying, 'I'm in atrial fibrillation: what do I do?' The first time I saw that in the subject line of an email, I said, the world has really changed." "'Tis healthy to be sick sometimes." - Henry David Thoreau 44 ● ●● www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk http://www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Outsource Magazine Issue 34

Challenges and Champions
Outsourcing in a Troubled Economic Environment
Richard Jones
High Stakes
In Transition
The Bigger Picture
Numbers, Numbers Everywhere...
NOA Round-Up
Struggling To Get Through?
International Commercial Disputes In Outsourcing Agreements
Is Infrastructure Necessary?
Global Freelance Platforms Grow Up
Trumping Price – Only with Best value
Kerry Hallard
Technology Investment in 2014
Water Will Always Find A Way
The Right Time Is Now
You, Robot?
The Legal View
Top Ten
NelsonHall Round-Up
Online Round-Up
The Deal Doctor
Inside Source
The Last Word

Outsource Magazine Issue 34