m-health sector’s healthy opportunities? - Same old claims, same old problems

There is once again much focus on the opportunities presented by the m-health market. Several major mobile network operators have announced “new” m-health initiatives. O2, Orange, Vodafone (NYSE:VOD) and MTN are amongst those active in some way in the m-health market.

In fact m-health is not at all new since many of these operators have been active for a number of years. Orange for example announced the creation of their Orange Healthcare division back in 2007.

Before m-health it was e-health and along side these, tele-care, tele-medicine and other similar names exist to describe solutions that essentially have the same objectives. These are to alleviate the systemic pressures that are endemic in the healthcare industry such as the rising cost of healthcare and the inability of healthcare service supply to meet demand for services. These objectives are just as relevant to developed countries as well as developing countries. With the latter there is more focus on being able to deliver some form of affordable healthcare more broadly across the populations.

Statistics still not translating into Market Size
The McKinsey & Company report speaks of a $50bn to $60bn market for m-health in 2010 and cites this as one reason why operators are stepping up their efforts to create and deliver m-health services.

The magnitude of demand that will drive this market is based on a study of 3,000 consumers across 6 countries. Even though the countries involved in the study have the largest populations in the world, the number of consumers involved in the study is statistically insignificant given the fact that a large part of the target market is the 4 billion people using mobile phones that are struggling to access affordable healthcare.

The report suggests that 70% of respondents were very interested in using at least one m-health product and that “a surprisingly high number” were willing to pay. They would be, but this is not the same as saying that they could pay in which case the claimed market size starts to shrink quickly and significantly.

So what happened to e-health et al?
Analyst’s expectations for tele-care, tele-medicine and other related markets never reached their market expectations. Many pilots have been carried out and much experience has been gained. Work has been repeated and re-reported but the reality is that long-term commercial successes have been few. Most of the projects are government or research funded and do not readily translate into commercial success. Simply put, the huge potential is not matched by the ability or real willingness of people to pay despite what they say when questioned in a survey. Will it be any different for m-health?

Segment the m-health market to get a better understanding of the true market potential
In any consumer market, segmentation of the sector is critical in determining product / service functionality and price points. The m-health has yet to be subjected to this discipline in any substantial way because the market is still largely driven by government grants and research donations. The requirement to prove the technology, process or benefit far outweighs the requirement to prove the cost benefits.

At one extreme, sending SMS messages that carry public healthcare information and general advice to remote regions can easily be costed and is generally affordable. At the other extreme, solutions require the provision of high tech, personal medical devices that connect to remote monitoring centres either directly or through mobile phones. These kinds of solution are not affordable by developing countries and are only available on a limited basis in developed countries.

Search for the appropriate value chain continues
Over the years, the drive to incorporate technology as a key aspect of personal healthcare delivery has suffered from technological, logistical and legal issues amongst others. It is fair so say that with mobile operators being involved in m-health great strides can be made towards resolving some of the logistical issues. After all which industry is better placed to deliver and manage data and physical products directly to end users on such a grand scale? It is also fair to say that with organisations such as Continua driving standards for medical monitoring devices and electronic patient records great strides continue to be made towards resolving some of the technological issues that keep the availability of monitoring devices low and their prices unacceptably high.
The legal and support issues however remain largely unresolved. If anything, they will become even more complicated for anything other than simple SMS based m-health solutions. Who will take responsibility for loss of, or non-delivery of data at a critical moment? How can medical data, recommendations and advice be validated, assured, audited and tracked in an m-health driven system? Will the medical profession get behind m-health en-masse? If they do, how will the profession deal with the increased demand for advisory and follow-up services generated as a result of the sudden and huge increase in customers?

The role of mobile operators
Despite the size of the potential market, it continues to remain difficult to provide affordable solutions to a segment of the m-health market that would generate the most benefit for consumers and healthcare service providers alike.

If, by their involvement, operators are able to create an environment in which more of these support issues can be resolved, then further steps towards the mass adoption of m-health will have been taken.