Mobile operators have a huge role to play in the future of mHealth technologies, not to mention being huge players in helping spur adoption of new age concepts given their immense reach.
Orange Austria, the nation’s third largest operator with more than 20% market share, is a perfect example of the role carriers can play in this burgeoning industry. The company has been successfully distributing its own proprietary remote patient monitoring solution since June of last year, following a successful 12-month trial prior to the official launch. The solution has been so successful, in fact, that Orange is presenting on its mHealth experience at the Connected World Forum in October.
The solution from Orange currently allows the remote monitoring of Diabetes and hypertension, though the company says it plans to expand its capabilities to monitor other diseases like COPD and ECG in the near future, as well as extending functionality into the lifestyle and wellness sectors as well. While the solution has seen great success since its launch, the company admits to several key challenges facing the mHealth industry in general, especially in highly regulated countries like the US, Austria and the rest of Europe.
Regardless, the operator’s foray into mHealth has been a successful one and signals one of the first large-scale mHealth deployments by a wireless operator to date. Company officials have already confirmed several future innovations and launches in the near future as well. Think about this though — Orange Austria has roughly 1.9M subscribers, so just imagine what would happen if a major US operator like Verizon (and its 100.6M+ subscribers) began similar initiatives.