Most perspective segments(our point of view) among medical applications for iPhone/iPad and Android:

1. Publication of medical books for iPad, as well as for announced Android-tablets and their interactivisation (due to large display in iPad, as opposed to iPhone, it’s more comfortable to learn various materials and watch images);
2. Development of training applications based on iPad for medical schools etc.
3. Porting of corporate systems from medical companies to iPad or Android-tablets;
4. Development of mobile medical applications for companies which already have a substantial users base (medical portals, large companies with clients etc);
5. And, obviously, development of medical applications for amateurs in other fields (healthcare, travel etc);

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Smartphones will soon be diagnosing illness as well as advising on cures. Will we all become iPho-chondriacs?

Lena Bryce’s mobile phone got her pregnant. Dan Woolley’s kept him alive for days under a collapsed building. Fran Neri’s saved her from a life-threatening infection. A fast-growing array of downloadable applications for smartphones is turning the mobile phone into a doctor in your pocket, on constant call to diagnose ills and propose cures. Soon mobile apps could even provide lifesaving home treatment for millions. That’s the upside. Experts warn, though, that apps may turn us into a neurotic nation of phone-hugging iPho-chondriacs.

More: link

Beginning of the review and analysis of applications from section “Medical” can be found here: link

Functionality and sophistication of applications in section “Healthcare” (Top-100)

Average price in Top-100 “Healthcare”: $2.21

The average price in Top-10 “Healthcare”: $2.59 (the most optimal price for new applications).

Conclusions

- Applications in this section have a higher quality of implementation and design (in particular compared to those in section “Medical”).

- Section “Healthcare” already contains popular applications which use built-in sensors (allow the applications to collect additional data and significantly facilitates the interaction with a customer). Moreover, we can confidently forecast an increase in quantity of such applications in the future;

- The section is more commercially attractive for publishing new applications, compared to section “Medical” (it has applications from a general Top-100; the total number of applications is twice as much as in section “Medical”);

- there are applications with a successfully implemented model of “free basic functions” + “in-app purchase”, what obviously positively affects the general target customers of the application and profits of developers.

With respect to such criteria as quality of implementation, design, promotion of applications and business model, section “Healthcare” is a guideline for all developers from section “Medical”.
However, we have to admit that neither of the categories include application which could bear the title of “killer medical app”.

But only slow and steady wins the race!

We plan to systemically monitor in the future the qualitative changes of applications in Top-100 of this section and will publish respective reports for our readers.

The review is prepared by
specialists of The Viactivity LLC
(development and promotion of mobile applications)

11 SEO tips on promoting and advertizing medical applications for iPhone:

- don’t forget that the time when people were buying applications just because it was published in Apple App Store, has already gone;

- when choosing the category, it is better to publish the application (as the main category) in “Healthcare”, rather than in “Medical” (which is less popular);

- stable sales of application can be secured only through its promotion on theme- related  websites, search optimization within Apple App Store and for the main search engines (Google);

- don’t give yourself a trouble and create (or order) a small, convenient press-release for fast publication (40-second video on YouTube, brief description of application, few screenshots) and send it to authors of medical (around 60) and other blogs, websites; at least some of them will show interest in your application (publications in blogs increase the sales significantly). Moreover, a post with your application increases its rating in search engines (when sorting the search results);

- the higher the quality and the clearer the video and press-release of your application are, the higher probability that information about it will be published on popular websites and blogs;

- even medical applications should attract with its design and graphical interface. Graphical interface must be simple and user-friendly. People will pay more for such product than for a “miserly application, without design and destined for specialists in the medicine”.

- it is better to create a separate page for each application (and sometimes an individual website) to effectively promote in the search engines;

- description of the application in Apple App Store must be as brief and clear as possible at first glance; do not let the user to think a lot about your spatial reflections with heaps of medical terms, before he or she buys your application;

- it is better not to promote the application for a mass user on medical websites (the target group of medical websites is relatively small, while the rent is rather high);

- before buying the development do not forget to undertake a research of the similar applications from your competitors; most probably your idea is not unique anymore, since about 30 new applications are published everyday in the “Medical” + “Healthcare” sections of Apple App Store.

- Conceptualize the advertisement and promotion BEFORE buying the development of application, rather than after.  This will help you to add to application the functions which are sometimes critical for its success before drafting the final estimate of the development (modifying is more costly after development has begun, than before it started).

The review is prepared by
specialists of The VIactivity LLC and The MedicalSEO.US Project
(development and promotion of mobile applications)

Some of the data is published here, since it can be useful to readers of our blog.

Functionality and sophistication of applications in section “Medical” (Top-100)

The most popular price: $0.99 (35%)

Average price in TOP-100: $4.38

The average price in Top-10: $2.29 (the most optimal price for new applications).

Conclusions

- low quality of the most of applications can probably explained by either unqualified developers (“student’s quality”) or the fact that developers don’t understand the specificity of medical applications and can’t modify them properly for iPhone;

- the main mistake of new developers: charging an exorbitantly high prices per simple applications (most often $9.99), whereby the demand and total profit are minimal.

- customers are promised a valued result with the help of many applications which in reality can’t be derived on the basis of given data (in other words it is a deception of customer with respect to service’s quality);

- the section “Medical” contains relatively few projects with good ideas; mainly these are merely the databases or catalogues of audio/video materials, without adaptation etc (71%);

- applications don’t use the business model of subscriptions(”In App Purchases”) and various additional features of the phone (sensors, camera etc);

The data analysis suggests that section “Medical” still has to get its “medical killer app” as  a result  of effective cooperation between highly skilled doctors and experienced developers of mobile applications.

In the next article we will similarly analyze section “Healthcare” of mobile applications for iPhone.

We also plan to monitor in the future the qualitative changes of applications in Top-100 of this section and will publish respective reports for our readers.

The review is prepared by
specialists of The Viactivity LLC
(development and promotion of mobile applications)

Some Highlights:

The current U.S. market for wireless, home-based health care applications is $304 million, according to one estimate.

With regard to mobile device applications used by physicians, a survey conducted by MDsearch found that 53 percent of responding physicians owned a smartphone and that 63 percent of those with smartphones used mobile medical applications over the device.

The explosion of medical applications available over mobile phones also is demonstrated by the applications available at Apple’s iTunes store and thus available over the iPhone. Zume Life, for example, is an iPhone application that allows patients to record all their daily health activities and ongoing health conditions and provides patients medication reminders

That market is expected to grow to $4 billion in 2013, with estimated annual growth rates of 96 percent in 2010, 126 percent in 2011, 95 percent in 2012, and 68 percent in 2013.

The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or “Commission”) should adopt policies that will promote  the growth of mobile health services and applications (“mHealth”) in the United States.

More info: link

Apple recently profiled Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston, Texas, which has outfitted some of its 19,500 employees across 11 hospitals with iPhones.

Based in Houston, TX, the fourth-largest city in the U.S., Memorial Hermann serves a metro area of more than five million people, providing everything from air ambulance services to a chemical dependency treatment center.

“Health care is a very real-time business,” says David Bradshaw, Chief Information, Planning, and Marketing Officer at Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. “We need anywhere, anytime computing, and iPhone is the best platform for the applications we’re choosing.”

Secure Access to Medical Data

With its built-in support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, iPhone fits in flawlessly with Memorial Hermann’s existing infrastructure. “For me, that tight integration with Microsoft Exchange is very important,” says Dr. Robert Murphy, Memorial Hermann’s Chief Medical Informatics Officer.

“It’s as if you had the Outlook client on your iPhone,” Bradshaw agrees. “Accepting meetings, looking at email and attachments, downloading spreadsheets. It’s seamlessly integrated into our Exchange network.”

iPhone security features such as remote wipe and passcode protection keep patient information confidential while remaining transparent to users. “The security technology is absolutely not in question,” Dr. Murphy says. “Our security team has looked at the iPhone, and it not only meets the standards, it exceeds the standards.”
Physicians Gain Efficiency

The simple iPhone interface and Multi-Touch technology let busy doctors get up to speed quickly. “The phone itself is very intuitive — you don’t need an instruction manual,” says obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Marco Giannotti.

And with hundreds of medical apps available, iPhone becomes an instant pocket reference for everything from anatomical charts to diagnostic tools, allowing clinicians the freedom to create their own application workflows.

iPhone gives doctors “the right information at the right moment,” adds Dr. Murphy. “Having that information available right at the point of care, you feel more confident in your decision-making.”

Medical Apps Deliver

The iPhone advantage is highlighted by apps like AirStrip OB, which enables obstetricians to monitor different stages of labor even when they’re not by a patient’s side. Developed by AirStrip Technologies, AirStrip OB links individual mobile devices to a central AirStrip server with HIPAA-compliant authentication, giving obstetricians remote access to live views of delivery room data — including fetal heart tracings, contraction patterns, vital statistics and nursing notes.

“AirStrip OB is an absolutely indispensable app on iPhone,” Dr. Giannotti says. “It fundamentally changes the way I’m able to interact with labor and delivery. In a tenth of the time, without pulling a nurse away from what she’s doing, I get all the real-time data I need at the touch of a button.”

The option of viewing heart tracings in landscape mode distinguishes iPhone from other devices, and makes AirStrip OB an even better tool for obstetricians. “It’s just off the chart how doctors who have iPhones are using AirStrip OB, compared to those who don’t,” Bradshaw observes.

Better Care via iPhone

With secure remote access to clinical data, must-have medical apps, and an interface that makes it easy to view and interpret key information, iPhone is clearly helping to improve health care at Memorial Hermann.

“There’s no question that iPhone is making a difference in how patients are cared for,” Bradshaw says. “Especially the ability to keep clinicians in constant contact with patients and the actual care setting. It’s all about them delivering on why they went to school and became a doctor or a nurse. iPhone simply helps us deliver patient care in a more efficient, productive manner.”

Read more: link

Those are the basic FDA requirements that apply to bringing an app or other piece of software to market in the mhealth field. Undoubtedly, to those not accustomed to the FDA regulated world, those hurdles might seem high. In the next article, we’ll tackle the benefits and burdens of going through those admittedly rigorous FDA requirements from a business standpoint. In particular we’ll focus on the competitive advantages that can be derived from entering the regulated space, weighed against the cost of achieving those advantages.

Read more: link

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Investors discussed their roles in entrepreneurial companies, what will generate the most money in the health care in the next 10 years, and what they look for when choosing an investment Friday at the Ohio Venture Association panel in Cleveland.

Preventative medicine was the general consensus among the panel as the most fruitful focus in health care over the next decade. But some investors on the panel were cautious of areas such as electronic medical records. Health information technology is very complicated and takes several years for incremental improvement, said Chuck Hallberg of the Medical Growth Fund.

The panelists also included Mike Bunker of Early Stage Partners, Steve Haynes of Glengary Ventures, Rich Langdale of NCT Ventures, and John Zak of Portal Capital. All of these groups are early-stage investors based in the Cleveland area with the exception of NCT, which is based in Columbus (Chris Seper from MedCity News was the moderator).

Each of the investors said they have their plates full — both due to the economy and an increase in the quality of deals and opportunities in the state. But the panelists echoed a trend nationally: that it will become more difficult for the early-stage entrepreneur to secure what’s considered traditional, early-stage capital. According to Langdale, the investment community is looking for less risk, which explains their decreased returns, and early-stage investors are more likely to have the demeanor of traditionally late-stage venture investors.

Direct link and video: link

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