Nearly 2.2 million patients worldwide were using a home monitoring service based on equipment with integrated connectivity at the end of 2011, according to a report by research firm Berg Insight. According to the Swedish firm, the number of home monitoring systems with integrated communication capabilities will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18% between 2010 and 2016, reaching 4.9 million connections globally by the end of the forecast period.
The number of devices that have integrated cellular connectivity increased from 420,000 in 2010 to about 570,000 in 2011 and is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 34.6% to 2.47 million in 2016. The number does not include patients that use monitoring devices connected to a PC or mobile phone. It only includes systems that rely on monitors with integrated connectivity or systems that use monitoring hubs with integrated cellular or fixed-line modems.
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“Home monitoring solutions that can communicate over a cellular network, landline connection or the Internet have already reached significant volumes within cardiac rhythm management, integrated telehealth solutions, sleep therapy and cardiac event monitoring,” said Berg telecom analyst Lars Kurkinen.
So-called e-health — a term for health care practices supported by electronic processes and communication — has been in development for some time. More recently, m-health has appeared as a subset of e-health in which mobile phones or cellular networks are used.
Leveraging connectivity technologies in the health care industry can lead, said Berg Insight, to decreased costs, more efficient care delivery and improved sustainability of the health care system. However, the rate of adoption is still slow, and wireless technologies have only just begun to penetrate the market.
More than 200 million people in the European Union and the U.S. suffer from one or several chronic diseases where home monitoring can become a treatment option. Some of the most common conditions being monitored are chronic diseases including cardiac arrhythmia, hypertension, ischemic diseases, sleep apnea, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
