18 Million North Americans Used Connected Care Solutions in 2018

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A new report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight has found that around 18.0 million people in North America were using connected care solutions at the end of 2018. The figure refers to users of medical alert systems, connected medication management solutions and remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions in Canada and the US. RPM is the largest and most mature segment having a total of 16.1 million users at the end of 2018. The market for medical alert systems is considerably smaller with an estimated total of 3.1 million users, whereas the number of connected medication management users reached 900,000 at the end of 2018. There is an overlap between the market segments as medical alert users can also be equipped with a medication management solution or an RPM solution, and vice versa. The market is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.3 percent during the next six years to reach 49.4 million connected care users by 2024.

The leading use case for RPM have thus far been sleep therapy monitoring. Patients that suffer from sleep-disordered breathing such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are typically prescribed an airflow generator, but many patients find the device unpleasant to use and poor compliance is common. Payers thus increasingly require that patients comply with their treatment plans to be reimbursed for the device which has driven equipment vendors to connect the devices. Philips is the largest provider of connected airflow generators. ResMed follows closely thanks to the company’s decision to include cellular IoT connectivity as standard in its Air Solutions product family.

The North American market for connected care solutions is affected by several trends and developments that will have an impact on the competitive landscape in the following years. Changing demographics is driving the demand for home care, while technological developments and regulatory changes affect the competitive landscape for solution vendors. One of the major ongoing changes is the sunset of the landline telephone networks and cellular 3G networks, which forces equipment providers to upgrade their products. At the same time, the industry is becoming more patient-centric which calls for integrated systems and improved interoperability of connected care solutions. New companies are entering the connected care market and connected medication management solutions are today in the centre of attention for start-ups.

About Berg Insight

Berg Insight is a dedicated M2M/IoT market research firm based in Sweden. We have been specialising in all major M2M/IoT verticals such as fleet management, car telematics, smart metering, smart homes, mHealth and industrial M2M since 2004. Our vision is to be the most valuable source of intelligence for our customers. Berg Insight offers numerous market reports, detailed market forecast databases and advisory services. We provide custom research tailored to your requirements including focussed research papers, business case analysis, go-to-market strategies and bespoke market forecasting. We have provided analytical services to 1,000 clients in 72 countries on six continents to date. Our customers range from many of the world’s largest mobile operators, IT companies and telecom vendors, to venture capitalists, technology start-ups and specialist consultants.