Healthcare + Digital Health Facts

Nearly 1 in 2 American adults live with at least one chronic illness (CDC, 2012)
The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system
The United States spends almost $8,000 per capita on health care, nearly 50% higher than the closest industrialized country (OECD, 2010)
17% of children and adolescents are obese – triple the rate from just one generation ago (CDC, 2012)
The majority (68%) of adults over 20 are obese or overweight (CDC, 2012)
Life expectancy at birth in the United States is an estimated 78.49 years, ranking 50th globally (CIA Factbook, 2011)
There are between 50-100k deaths due to medical errors per year (Society of Actuaries, 2000)

Total U.S. health expenditures is $2.6T (2010) and is expected to rise to $4.8T by 2021 (CMS); about $2.2T is spent on personal health care, while the remainder is spent on investment (e.g. R&D), health insurance administration and public health
The United States spent more than 17% of its GDP on health care, higher than any other developed nation (Commonwealth Fund, 2010)
Hospital care, physician, and other clinical services make up about 51% of all health spending ($1.3T) (CMS)
Prescription drugs make up about 10% of all health spending ($259B) (CMS)
Of the $2.2T in personal health care expenditures, Medicare and Medicaid finance $525B and $400B respectively, or more than 40% of health care (CMS)
Private health insurance finances around $850B of personal health care expenditures (38%), while consumers finance only about $300B out-of-pocket (less than 15%) (CMS)
Around 30% of all health care spending in the U.S. or more than $750B per year is wasted (IOM)
Seniors account for 36% of total costs, at $1.01 trillion, but are only 13% of the U.S. population (Deloitte, 2012)
75% of all health care dollars are spent on patients with one or more chronic conditions, many of which can be prevented, including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, lung disease, high blood pressure, and cancer (Health Affairs)
An increasing number of U.S. businesses are less competitive globally because of ballooning healthcare costs (Council on Foreign Relations, 2012)

73% of physicians believe that HIT will improve the quality of care provided in the longer term – higher among physicians with 10 or less years in practice (81%) and those in larger practices (80%) (Deloitte, 2013)
43% of physicians use mobile health technology for clinical purposes (Deloitte, 2013)
The United States lags behind other countries by as much as a dozen years in its efforts to implement HIT (Commonwealth Fund, 2006)

Full implementation of health IT systems could produce efficiency savings as great as $77 billion per year after a 15-year adoption period (Rand, 2007)
35% of U.S. hospitals have adopted Electronic Health Records (HHS, 2012)
57% of office-based physicians have adopted Electronic Health Records (CDC, 2011)
The number of hospitals using health information technology has more than doubled in the last two years (HHS, 2012)
The number of health IT jobs in the US is expected to increase by 20 percent from 2008 to 2018 (HHS, 2012)
The U.S. health IT market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of around 24% from 2012 to 2014 (RNCOS, 2011)

Wireless penetration in the US is 104.6% (CTIA, 2011)
104 million people in the U.S. own smartphones (comScore, 2012)
About 50% of smartphone users download apps (comScore, 2012)
Mobile Healthcare and medical App downloads will reach 44 million in 2012, Rising to 142 Million in 2016 (Juniper 2012)
84% of doctors use tablets – 74% iPad, 10% other (MobiHealthNews, April 2012)
McKinsey projects opportunities in global mHealth to be $60 billion
19% of Smartphone Users Have Health Apps (Pew Report, 2012)

80% of internet users, or 59% of U.S. adults, look online for health information (Pew Internet, 2010)
34% of internet users, or 25% of U.S. adults, have read someone else’s commentary or experience about health or medical issues on an online news group, website, or blog (Pew Internet, 2011)
24% of internet users, or 18% of adults, have consulted online reviews of particular drugs or medical treatments (Pew Internet, 2011)
18% of internet users, or 13% of adults, have gone online to find others who might have health concerns similar to theirs. People living with chronic and rare conditions are significantly more likely to do this (Pew Internet, 2011)

Remote patient-monitoring devices have the fastest-growing revenue of any medical device sector (Kalorama Information, 2011)
More than 34 million unpaid caregivers provide care to someone age 18 and older who is ill or has a disability (AARP, 2008)
Eight in ten caregivers have access to the Internet. Of these, 88% look online for health information, outpacing other Internet users (Pew Internet, 2012)
Caregivers are more likely than other internet users to take advantage of social tools related to health (Pew Internet, 2012)
In 2030, when all baby boomers will be at least 65 years old, the population of adults in this age group is projected to be 71 million (Administration on Aging, 2007)
The vast majority of patients (90 percent) want to self-manage their healthcare leveraging technology, such as accessing medical information, refilling prescriptions and booking appointments online (Accenture, 2012)
Remote patient-monitoring devices have the fastest-growing yearly revenue of any med device sector (Kalorama Information, 2011)
In 2009, annual expenditures for home health care were projected to be $72.2 billion (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, 2010)

76% of Fortune 50 companies are in the health industry or have a health division (Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 2011)
Digital Health startups raised over $956M in venture funding in 2011 (Rock Health, 2011)
Digital Health startups raised over $1.4B in venture funding in 2012, up 46% from 2011 (Rock Health, 2013)

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