The Journal of mHealth Vol 2 Issue 1 (February 2015) | Page 7

Digital Health 2015: What Can We Expect?
in 2013 to $16 billion in 2023, while consumer health applications will increase
from $2.5 billion to $7 billion over the
same time frame.
Mobile technologies will also allow specialty testing to migrate closer to the
point-of-care. Combining smartphones
with sensors and purposeful, miniaturised
medical devices will allow for portable,
cost-effective, point-of-care clinical diagnostic and screening tools to be brought
to a broader audience of healthcare providers. These emerging capabilities, along
with market trends like the shortage of
physicians and the critical need to contain
costs, will help fuel growth in the clinically focused mobile health space.
Adoption of these tools will depend on
ease of use, accuracy, relevancy and how
much friction or disruption they cause in
the daily workflow of doctors. The objective is to create apps and devices that
doctors can’t live without. This means
adaptable, time-saving tools that have the
potential to make healthcare more efficient by speeding-up diagnosis, improving
patient monitoring and reducing unnecessary visits to a physician or hospital.
Balancing privacy and
convenience
Finding the right balance between privacy and convenience continues to be an
issue in the connected health space. The
2014 HRI consumer survey found that,
for 65% of all respondents, data security
was more important to them than convenient access to imaging and test results,
doctor’s notes, diagnoses and prescriptions. Recent health security breaches
have further compounded the debate
over health related information, meaning
that cybersecurity measures will have to
focus on what stakeholders in the healthcare system demand i.e. health data that
is private, secure and accessible.
It has been suggested that 2015 will be
the year of the healthcare hack, and if
recent headlines are anything to go by,
this is one prediction that is already
proving to be accurate. Many consumers
and people within the industry often fail
to realise the significant tangible value
of health records. The vast amount of
personal, financial and medical data,
held within an individual’s health record
makes it an extremely attractive target for
thieves, with stolen records commanding

up to $1,300 per record on the black market. The reason this data is considered so
valuable, is that compromised information can be used for both direct financial
gain, and for sophisticated identity theft
to obtain access to medical services and
medications.
Given that many healthcare providers
around the world are still using legacy
IT systems the opportunities for hackers to access records is high. High-tech
thieves still manage to circumnavigate
bank security measures - an industry that
has spent billions trying to secure IT and
data management systems, so it is little
wonder that the healthcare sector is seen
as an easy target.
Healthcare cybersecurity has not always
been given sufficient priority, but as the
volume of data generated by the provision of care continues to grow, then this
will have to change. Systems are becoming increasingly connected which, in
turn, is leading to an increase in the level
of opportunities for intrusion. Many
healthcare organisations are turning to
cloud-based services to help address and
minimise these problems but it remains
an evolving issue for all those involved.
Although we are likely to see more
headlines during 2015 relating to health