The Apple iPad is due to go on sale in Japan toward the end of May and is already attracting lots of attention. Meanwhile, this year smartphones are building their presence on the market in Japan with the introduction of new models. The spread of these devices, in turn, is brightening the prospects for "mobile healthcare," which refers to the provision of healthcare-related content of various sorts via mobile phones and other wireless equipment. The introduction of mandatory checks for metabolic syndrome in Japan in 2008 has helped power the growth of this market, which now gives consumers access to a wide variety of applications on easy-to-use devices. According to a study by the research firm Seed Planning, Inc., the market started out in fiscal 2007 (April 2007 to March 2008) with a scale of just ¥8 billion, but by 2012 it can be expected to grow 20-fold and reach the ¥160 billion mark.
Among the healthcare-related products and services already available is one that allows users to link their mobile phones to their scales and other measuring devices for consolidated local tracking of their weight, body fat, sleeping hours, and other personal health data. Another has users take photos of their meals with their phone cameras and email them to a center where they are reviewed by dieticians, who periodically mail back advice about their diet. Mobile phones are handy for personal health management for a number of reasons. People always carry them around anyway, and they can be set to automatically receive updates from measuring devices with communication capabilities. Also, they can show data in graphical form, making it easier for users to track their health indicators visually. The number of people using healthcare-related products and services on their handsets is expected to keep growing.
In the United States, meanwhile, where smartphones have come into wide use, the market has been spreading from personal health management to the field of medical care. Almost 1,000 applications are available for the everyday sharing of medical information with doctors and other medical practitioners. And progress is being made toward commercialization of a wearable device for people with heart disease or diabetes that will sense the signs of an attack or seizure before it occurs and, via the user's cellphone, will send an emergency message to a medical institution. A big market is already taking shape in the United States for wireless healthcare of various types, including telemedicine and diagnostic support. According to estimates by McKinsey & Company, Inc., this market will amount to $20 billion in the United States and $50 billion globally this year.
Mobile healthcare in Japan is currently limited to the field of personal health management, and the development of a full-fledged wireless healthcare market as seen in the United States seems like a remote prospect. A number of substantial hurdles lie in the way of development of such a market, including existing legislation concerning pharmaceutical affairs and provisions for the protection of individual information, as well as limitations in the existing wireless network and other types of infrastructure.
Even so, given the potential benefits of wireless healthcare, including not only improved health but also more accurate and speedy diagnosis and more effective care and lifesaving services, surely there is need for such products and services in Japan as well. If and when the obstacles are removed, we may see explosive growth in this market.
(Mikiko Tate)
