MHealth: Mobile technology brings healthcare home
Nativo Mira Esplugues has had knee replacement surgery.
Instead of having to go to the hospital on a daily basis for physiotherapy, he is doing it at home, using a remote monitoring terminal that works using mobile phone technology.
The technology has been developed by Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica.
An ageing - and expanding - population is presenting health care providers and governments with a budgetary crisis. In Europe around 7% of GDP is spent on healthcare, and in the US that figure rises to 15%.
Telecoms companies are also facing challenging times, with traditional markets reaching saturation, forcing them to explore other revenue streams. Vodafone, Orange, AT&T Wireless, Turkey's Avea, and Japan's NTT DoCoMo are all investing in mobile healthcare.
Companies are queuing up to grab a slice of the mobile healthcare market.
Fiona Graham reports.