Medical research firm InMedica has released a new whitepaper detailing the increased growth and adoption in telemedicine — an industry that’s forecast to produce more than 990M in revenues by 2015.

The whitepaper, entitled “Competitive Dynamics in the World Telehealth Market – 2011 to 2020,” looks at the telehealth market over the next 10 years and covers what it calls the “major parts of the ecosystem,” which include peripheral device suppliers – blood pressure monitors, glucose meters etc; gateway suppliers – health hubs and mobile gateways; and data transmission service providers – POTS, cellular and broadband.

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A new study recently published by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) — the folks behind the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — shows that consumers demand better access to mobile health services and access to their personal medical information.

The study, entitled “The New Role of Technology in Consumer Health and Wellness,” examines consumer perceptions and attitudes in using new age digital and mobile health tools and services.  In it, it was found that 36 percent of consumers say they’d be interested in sending health data to their doctor via a wireless device; 33 percent are interested in managing their health records online; and 32 percent would be willing to consult with their doctor via online video.

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The American Medical Association (AMA) has created an on-going challenge designed to put physicians and medical students in the driver’s seat in regards to innovative mobile healthcare applications.

Being called the AMA App Challenge, the content challenges physicians, medical students and residents to come up with ideas for an iOS app that can “benefit the mobile community.”  The AMA will select 10 ideas total, 5 from the physician category and 5 from the resident/medical student category.  In the end, one person from each group will be selected and allowed to present their idea at an awards ceremony in New Orleans.

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We’ve talked a lot recently about what AT&T is doing in the mHealth space, but it looks like Verizon isn’t wasting any time either.  At the recent Verizon Developers Conference in Las Vegas, the nation’s largest wireless operator debuted a new mobile HD video conferencing tool for businesses — a tool aimed squarely at the mHealth market.

The tool, which includes an app called FuzeMeeting, allows users the ability to start multi-party HD video conferences from their smartphones and tablets.  The solution also allows you to collaborate with documents, video and images face-to-face while leveraging the speed of Verizon’s 4G LTE data network.   While the solution is applicable in a wide range of industries, healthcare comes to mind as the most prominent.  Medical staff can remotely access patient X-Rays, obtain live video consultation with doctors and instantly collaborate with a pool of experts through video conferencing, among many other use cases.

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We covered the fact that AT&T is getting serious about mHealth technology yesterday, and today it’s been announced that the nation’s #2 carrier is launching “AT&T ForHealth,” a new practice area serving hospitals, insurers, pharma companies, suppliers and physicians with the aim of delivering IT and networking services that help the healthcare industry improve patient care and reduce costs.

The new business unit will be an umbrella of sorts covering four key areas of healthcare; mHealth, telehealth, cloud-based healthcare solutions and Healthcare Information Exchange (HIE).  As part of the new division, AT&T has even hired its first Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO), Dr. Geeta Nayyar.  As one of its first large-scale healthcare initiatives, the company is working with the American Association of Diabetes Educators and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to evaluate mobile devices used to deliver diabetes self-management training in a minority community in Dallas.

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Pharmaceutical marketers are building mobile apps at a record pace, especially ones geared towards physicians, but experts warn that a lack of a disciplined strategic approach can lessen the chance of success.

Like with any mobile app in an ecosystem where 400,000+ apps already jam up the Apple App Store, discovery — or lack thereof — has become a major problem.  Some 10K+ mHealth apps already exist and pharma companies are ramping up their efforts considerably.  Ernst and Young reports that drug companies spent 78% more last year launching projects that use technology to improve patient health — half of which being mobile health apps, compared with just 16% previously.

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There’s long been mention of how slow the healthcare industry is to adopt digital and mobile technologies, but one area that continues to drive initial adoption is the combination of EHRs and the iPad for physician use.

In an article by Marty Briggs, Creative Director of Marketing for HealthFusion, he tells the story of visiting two different physicians — one that was using EHRs on a desktop computer and another that was resisting the adoption of EHRs altogether out of fear of jeopardizing his patient relationships he’d worked on for decades.  Briggs detailed how impersonal his experience was with the first physician who proceeded to stare at his desktop screen during the entire visit — exactly the disassociation the second physician was worried about.

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