App Developer Input Could Make MedTech Mainstream by 2019

It’s been a big year for MedTech, and mobile app developers building medical products are partly responsible. The healthcare industry has been one of the slowest to adapt to our digital times, but ACT The App Association and other developer groups are confident that the pressure put on legislators to update medical systems will soon come to fruition.

That said, the barriers to mobile medical solutions are still daunting. According to a report from ACT The App Association, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) only spent 2 percent of their budget on telehealth in the past year. Additionally, the entire telehealth concept is backwards-facing and unfriendly to revolutionary concepts like fitness tracking and preventative tech, which could save the US economy millions — if only the medical industry would pursue them with the same level of enthusiasm as app developers and the general public.

This year saw some positive progress, though, as app developers in San Francisco and nationwide lobbied the CMS with comments and suggestions to make sure that ongoing updates to medicare law will be tech-friendly. Included in those comments were relevant mobile tech updates to payment systems, patient data-gathering and management, and generally aim to make the medicare system more tech-friendly and less wasteful.

The CMS is expected to launch a new system in 2019, so in the meantime there is still much work to be done. For mobile app developers, that means continuing to push MedTech solutions and striving to serve users with health-focussed products — even as the established medical industry actively resists data-driven health measures. App developers can also drive positive change by collaborating with groups like ACT and the Connected Health Initiative to inform policymakers about the ways tech can increase efficiency and serve patients in our shared tech-driven future.