Connected Health

Connected health is a model for healthcare delivery that uses technology to provide healthcare remotely. Connected health aims to maximize healthcare resources and provide increased, flexible opportunities for consumers to engage with clinicians and better self-manage their care. It uses technology – often leveraging readily available consumer technologies – to deliver patient care outside of the hospital or doctor's office. Connected health encompasses programs in telehealth, remote care (such as home care) and disease and lifestyle management, often leverages existing technologies such as connected devices using existing cellular networks and is associated with efforts to improve chronic care.

The United States and European Union are two dominant markets for the use of connected health in home care service, in part due to the high availability of telephone and Internet service as compared to other parts of the world. Within the United States, over 260 million people have a land line connected, over 190 million are cell phone users, and approximately 200 million are Internet users. The European Union has roughly an equivalent number of people connected to land lines, but prevails over the U.S. with more than 300 million cell phone users and 230 million Internet users. More recent data collected by Pew Internet: Americans and their Gadgets suggest that 86% of US residents own a mobile phone and this number is as high as 96% among Americans aged 18 to 29 years. According to the International Communications Union, it is predicted that there will be 4 billion mobile phone users worldwide by the end of 2008.

The vision of the connected health model can be implicitly understood by contemplating the significant impact of technology on other industries, such as in banking, shopping, logistics and personal communications. Proponents of connected health believe that technology can transform healthcare delivery and address many inefficiencies especially in the area of work flow management, chronic disease management and patient compliance of the US and global healthcare systems.