Future of the Smartphone for Patients and Healthcare Providers

and 62% of smartphone owners had used their phones to look up information about a health condition [5]. The number of iOS apps including health and fitness groups increased from about 43,000 in 2013 to 98,000 in 2015 [6]. Such growth is not confined to m-health apps. The Internet of Things in the healthcare market is expected to be 117 billion US dollars in 2020 [7]. Regardless of the accuracy of the report, the m-health market seems to be experiencing explosive growth, but the m-health market for healthcare is lagging far behind or is still in an early stage. Apps for disease-specific information (9%), medication reminders & information (6%), and healthcare providers/insurance (2%) were only 17% of the health and fitness group apps in Apple App store [6]. Only 27% of community health centers in the United States use cellular phones for communication with patients. Cellular phones are rarely used for healthcare purposes—medication adherence, personal health information access, and chronic disease management support—in such centers [8], and wearable devices are rarely used for clinical purposes. Although m-healthcare services are still in an early stage, expectations are high. Why? The nature of smartphones, that is, their ease of use, smartness, accessibility, mobility, connectivity, etc., could explain these high expectations. Another explanation could be the nature of healthcare. Healthcare providers (HCPs) and patients are mobile in themselves. There are many reports that HCPs are not comfortable with health information technology (HIT), and HIT is not well integrated with their workflow. No physicians stay at an outpatient clinic all the time. They always move to and from Future of the Smartphone for Patients and Healthcare Providers