Consumer Health Tech Booms With Smartphones, Tablets

Consumers are increasingly using smartphone and tablet PCs, such as the Apple iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, to monitor their own health. This, according to a Dec. 6 report from research firm Ovum, is leading to the consumerization of health care technology.

The report "2011 Trends to Watch: Health Care Technology" discusses how consumer health devices will increasingly appear in the consumer market. Ovum is a division of research firm Datamonitor.

"We expect consumers to turn to their smartphone or tablet computer for health care advice and preventative care more and more," Cornelia Wels-Maug, Ovum senior analyst and author of the report, wrote in a statement.

Tablets were also recently named among the top health care sector purchases by nonprofit IT trade association CompTIA.

"The latest technology can play a key role and aid this shift towards the consumerization of health care," Wels-Maug added. "For example smartphone applications can advise on ways to lead a healthy lifestyle, helping consumers to avoid illness in the first place. Against a backdrop of increasing life expectancy, consumers are taking more responsibility for safeguarding their long-term quality of life and ensuring they continue to be healthy well into the future."

In 2011, Best Buy will sell wireless health devices in half of its stores, according to Ovum.

For more, read the eWeek article: Smartphones, Tablets Empowering Consumer Health Care Technology in 2011.