Patient Consumerism: Timeline

Patient consumerism brings the focus to consumer rights. With the rise of mobile health applications (mHealth apps), wearable technologies, and telemedicine, patients are well-situated to make the best choice for their own health.

Timeline

Listed below are the major milestones in the history of the patient consumerism theme, as identified by GlobalData.

1996 – Medical resources come to the Internet.

2000 – Smartphones begin to go mainstream and be widely available.

2008 – Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) are introduced for the first time to the patient consumer.

2009 – Telemedicine gets a boost from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which includes benefits for telemedicine.

2010 – Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, take off leading a new type of patient-centric dialogue.

2012 – Electronic health records are implemented more widely and dramatically increase the ability for secure messaging, patient-education tools, prescribing medications, and scheduling appointments.

2015 – Wearable technology becomes widely available with the introduction of affordable sensor technology.

2020 – At-home in vitro diagnostic tests are widely available at the local pharmacy and from online retailers.

This is an edited extract from the Patient Consumerism in Medical Devices Sector – Thematic Research report produced by GlobalData Thematic Research.