With access to mobile devices increasing dramatically with each passing year, mHealth has come along for the ride.

According to a new report from Frost & Sullivan, the increasing penetration of smartphones has provided a significant boost to the use of mobile platforms for providing healthcare services.

As a result, mobile health stands at a significant inflection point around the world, but increasingly in Australia as one particularly ripe market.

The Australian healthcare industry generated revenue worth A $370 million in 2012 from data, voice and mobile services. This does not include revenue generated by sale of mobile apps and devices.

Frost & Sullivan find that the connected health market for Australia is driven by “the shift in emphasis from acute care to prevention.”

“We can see that there is a shift from the hospital approach to a personal-driven approach i.e. home care, where people will take care of themselves with help from family, friends and technologies,” says Rhenu Bhuller, Vice President of Healthcare at Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific. “Mobile Health will become one of the biggest business model disruptors creating access for healthcare delivery on a mass basis.”

The market for healthcare mobile data, voice and services in APAC was estimated at A $7.6 billion in 2012 with Australia accounting for almost 5% of this figure.