Exploring the potential of Mobile Health for product and process innovation

Mobile Health or mHealth is an emerging concept of the use of mobile devices and wireless technology for healthcare purposes. Recently, mHealth-related technology is expected to form a new category of medical devices particularly in the monitoring of patients. This is also anticipated to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of pharmaceutical clinical trials. However, there are challenges to utilize this enabling technology to innovate healthcare business. Considering this context, we explore the potential of mHealth. First, we position mHealth with respect to current innovation theories based on intensive literature review. Second, we hypothesize that mHealth has two potential areas of innovation: product innovation in the medical devices industry and process innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. To test the hypotheses, we conducted a holistic observation on clinical trials to examine how large mHealth impacts a treatment pathway by innovative products. Consequently, we observed 193 studies are registered; however, most of these remain at a primitive level of information and communication technology such as text messaging and application, which suggests a significant gap to the market forecasts. This present study forms the basis of the trend of mHealth and a future outlook from the viewpoint of technology and innovation management.