Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:58 am Post subject: Do smartphone apps have a role to play in healthcare?
Smartphones and tablet computers are transforming millions of people's lives for one major reason – the astonishing growth in cheap, often free, software applications, or apps as they have come to be known.
At the beginning of 2013, Apple announced that its customers have downloaded more than 40billion apps, with more than 20bn in 2012 alone. Its developer community has created more than 775,000 apps and this has generated revenues of $7bn.
One market area growing as fast as any is perhaps the most important – healthcare. ABI Research estimates that the market for mobile healthcare apps will be worth $400million by 2016, while the market research company Research2Guidance claims 247m mobile phone users downloaded a health related app in 2012.
Apple has launched an Apps for Healthcare Professionals collection within its AppStore's Medical Category, which covers many different sectors like monitoring, nursing, imaging and patient education. The Medical Category has 240 health topics on its front page alone and an estimated 13,000 individual apps. For all makes of smartphone and tablets, there are said to be around 40,000 healthcare apps available.
_________________
skilled visa australia
