In This Report

Mobility in healthcare is finally having a meaningful impact on the way care solutions are marketed, delivered, consumed, and administered. Collaboration, consumerism, generational attitudes about mobile devices, and a wide range of macro-economic trends are driving this change.

Since TripleTree's initial forays into this sector over four years ago, innovations in Wireless and Mobile Health (mHealth) and the adjacent areas within healthcare and technology have grown markedly. Four years ago mHealth solutions were, for the most part, early stage initiatives geared exclusively toward tech-savvy clinicians and forward-thinking hospitals. Today, both technologies and attitudes are changing, making mHealth approachable to a broader audience including physicians, nurses, patients, payers, healthcare administrators, and consumers.

mHealth is enabling a shift in healthcare communications whereby physicians, hospitals, patients, and even payers are interacting on a more real-time basis. As a result, mission critical information is beginning to flow seamlessly across interoperable health enterprises to optimize patient safety. In addition, healthcare providers and payers are finding more efficient means to store, analyze, and leverage this information to improve the cost, quality, and accessibility of healthcare across the continuum. The proliferation of next generation mobile devices has substantially improved the timeliness and value of data and enabled new services to be delivered in a more cost effective manner. Similarly, the availability of a new generation of technology is quickly enabling nearly all healthcare constituents to achieve the common objective of improved outcomes.

Wireless mHealth value propositions and business models have become more tangible and as a result the willingness of patients and employers to proactively seek and invest in mHealth solutions has grown. Early support for mHealth was primarily driven by industry associations, progressive vendors, and venture stakeholders. Today, the arena is embraced by a more mainstream audience. Because of this foundational work, mHealth is emerging from the four corners of healthcare with a shared interest across medical technology, biopharmaceutical, healthcare provider, and payer sectors to help drive the next wave of innovation and adoption in the wireless and mobile healthcare space. Additionally, we are seeing tremendous momentum from the high-tech sector in driving this next wave of innovation and adoption through joint partnerships from the likes of GE and Intel (a partnership), UnitedHealth Group, Cisco, QUALCOMM, and many others.

Amid the current healthcare reform debate, the U.S. government, the private sector, and consumers are focused on the issues and questions regarding efficiency, cost, and safety of our healthcare system.

Through our research and investment banking practice, TripleTree has identified hundreds of innovative firms bringing mHealth solutions to the marketplace. Recently, these vendors were invited to participate in a survey and application process to identify best-in-class, commercially available solutions in three categories:

  • The growing need for more powerful clinical applications.
  • Improving operational effectiveness in healthcare services.
  • Providing a better consumer experience to produce more successful patient outcomes.


Select applicants were recognized with a TripleTree I Award at the 2009 Wireless-Life Sciences Convergence Summit in San Diego. The new approaches, business models, and strategies demonstrated by these firms are indicative of a new generation of mHealth capable of supporting new 'ecosystems of care' and more personalized services.

In this report (our fourth on mobile health), we continue our discussion on Telemedicine 2.0 and Remote Patient Monitoring and assess how the evolution of mobile platforms and social tools are legitimizing the growth of mHealth. The report also contains an Appendix outlining the I Award survey findings and brief profiles of the 12 Award finalists.

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