Wearable Devices Market to Grow Exponentially by 2018
The number of sensors and wearable devices that will be shipped globally will increase drastically over the next 3 to 4 years, reaching a market value of almost $40 billion by 2018. The global trend of mHealth is becoming established in Africa, with wearable devices as the main commercial product.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, July 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Wearable devices are expected to represent the next wave of mHealth solutions and will potentially act as the gateway to the connected health world. The number of sensors and wearable devices that will be shipped globally will increase drastically over the next 3 to 4 years, reaching a market value of almost US$ 40 billion by 2018. Frost & Sullivan will present some of the key requirements in the establishment of a connected healthcare ecosystem at the 5th annual Growth Innovation Leadership (GIL) 2015: Africa congress, taking place in Cape Town on the 20th of August.

"Remote monitoring of chronic conditions has been around for some time and has shown real value in the management of chronic disease," says Frost & Sullivan Programme Manager for Healthcare in Africa, Dr Etienne van Wyk. "The overlap that has been created with mHealth, and the development and miniaturisation of sensors, has led to the immense commercial potential of wearable devices as well as hosted cloud services going forward."

With aging populations and the rising prevalence of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs), such as Diabetes and Cardiovascular conditions, the need to positively influence and monitor lifestyle decisions is becoming increasingly important in order to prevent major health events and control spiralling healthcare costs.

However, there have been high expectations of the value that can potentially be unlocked through the use of mobile health (mHealth) solutions in the past, and the restraints to the mainstream adoption of technology in healthcare should be well understood. In Africa, mHealth has been aggressively pursued as a way of increasing the level of healthcare education, treatment adherence and to increase access to basic healthcare services.

"A key challenge is that full alignment between governments and participating organisations is still required," notes Van Wyk. "Added to this, is the limited business case for the use of mHealth. This seems to restrain the incorporation of mHealth solutions into the budgets of health ministries."

While there are many platforms being created by IT vendors, funders, providers and device manufacturers, it only adds to an already highly fragmented industry. Early movers in the development of healthcare cloud infrastructure, and those providing adequate security, will experience significant opportunity. "Taking a collaborative approach to designing this new connected healthcare architecture will however be critical," adds Van Wyk.

Ultimately, wearable devices need to become a logical extension of the growing global Mega Trend to improve health and wellness on a personal level. Only then, together with a trusted and secure platform, will mainstream adoption of mHealth take place and the next evolution of healthcare begin.

Schedule:

GIL 2015: Africa

The Table Bay Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa

20 August, 2015

Highlights of the congress will include: Connected industry case studies – Healthcare, Automotive, Energy & Environment, Information & Communication Technologies (ICT), as well as core sectors of growth in Africa that are currently the focus for Japanese and Korean companies looking to invest in the continent – presented by Regional Director for APAC Robin Joffe.

Frost & Sullivan's Global GIL Community continues to be the industry's only resource that supports CEOs and their management teams in critical decision-making, offering tools that help industry leaders across a variety of industries in achieving the three essential objectives of: Growth, Innovation and Leadership. GIL 2015: Africa will provide CEOs and their growth teams an opportunity not just to attend GIL, but to actually experience it.

About Frost & Sullivan

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Contact:

Samantha James

Corporate Communications – Africa

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F: +27 21 680 3296

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@FrostSullivanSA

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