Mobile devices have found their way into virtually every corner of the world, even in the most remote and least technologically developed countries. And this reality, says Joan Cornet, mHealth director at Mobile World Capital in Barcelona, has a "huge impact" on the potential of mobile health going forward. 

"We have a very interesting technology in our pockets, in our handbags," Cornet said, speaking at the EU-US eHealth Marketplace in Boston last week. For him, the most important aspect of the new technology is that, for the first time in history, humans all have the same kind of device. "And that's why we have to take that as a big opportunity in healthcare."

[See also: mHealth enters consumer Golden Age.]

This opportunity means developing the clinical side of mHealth, said Cornet. Patients and consumers have already embraced mHealth, but now providers need to step up their game. Some 42 percent of doctors worry mHealth will make the patient too independent, according to the findings of a 2012 PwC report, but in emerging markets 59 percent of patients already utilize mHealth solutions. 

Today, more than 40,000 mHealth applications are available to smartphone users, according to a 2012 research2guidance market analysis. And Apple's iTunes store alone boasts more than 12,000 mobile health apps. 

For Dave Whitlinger, executive director of New York eHealth Collaborative, mHealth represents an opportunity to reduce emergency department visits specifically for chronically ill patients who come in as a result of poorly managing their care plans. If doctors and care providers can adopt mHealth solutions to help patients avoid lapses in care plans, that could represent some big cost savings. And these solutions require tapping into health information exchange.  

Health information exchange among providers, patients and payers is a "public good," Whitlinger said at the Boston conference. He then made an analogy: "Nobody really wants electricity," he added. They want vacuum cleaners, lights, heat -- all the things that go with electricity. Similarly, "Nobody really wants health information exchange. They want their records to be liquid; they want records to be available" at their fingertips. 

Cornet also made the mHealth cost savings argument, pointing to a 2013 PwC report on mHealth in the European Union. The report estimated that by encouraging mHealth adoption, 99 billion euros -- or $136.5 billion -- would be saved, while adding $128.2 billion to the EU GDP. 

And these numbers are significant, he added, as they further make the case for developing the technology. "We have to have critical evidence. It's not enough to say it's fantastic," said Cornet. 

The potential of the market to reach an unprecedented number of people while driving down healthcare costs that have been on a steady incline has even garnered the interest of seemingly non-traditional companies. Verizon, for instance, is working to get a piece of the mHealth market share pie. 

Peter Preziosi, RN, healthcare innovation strategist at Verizon, said at the conference, "I always say that I'm part of a team that's taking Verizon to 'can you hear me now' to 'can you heal me now?'"

Preziosi affirmed the telecommunication giant' s goal of transforming "into a technology and solutions company that can really help to enable the ecosystem." Verizon, which just launched its mHealth solutions platform Oct. 24, also has several other mHealth projects in the pipeline, including a collaboration with In Motion to develop mHealth "hotspot" emergency vehicles. 

The overwhelming potential of mHealth in the realms of both cost savings and care quality is obvious, added Cornet. It "means we are giving to citizens the power to control themselves."