mHealth Technology Will Bridge The Gap Between Innovation and Profit In Healthcare

The sciences have a foul reputation when it comes to adequately rewarding the innovator for any new product. For the most part it seems that a handful of large companies acquire the lions-share of the market and distribute the profits internally as they see fit.

Steve Jobs built machines that were ergonomic and integrated and was rewarded greatly for it. As a result an entire industry boomed; products became more user friendly as they became more complex and a steady stream of consumer interest fueled the expansion.

As Matthew Herper of Forbes describes here the problem with medical innovation lay with the technology being largely uninteresting to the consumer, too complex to be of any use to anyone but a select few, or potentially unappealing to the innovator who would not see gains in proportion to their work.

I believe that mobile health technology, as it becomes more ubiquitous throughout society, will ultimately end the disparity between innovation, integration, and profit in healthcare. Healthcare technology applications such as Qpid.me and EndoGoddess are perfect examples of how healthcare can become a far-reaching and interesting consumer product. One which recognizes the will of the innovator, potentially as much as Steve Jobs recreated technology in his image during his lifetime. The field is ripe with opportunities.

In his article Mr. Herper states that  There are 50% more billionaires from tech than from health care, and they are far richer. I am compelled to believe that the direction healthcare technology is moving in will bridge that gap too.