Finland offers the third best market prerequisites for the mHealth business among the EU countries, according to a survey conducted by research2guidance in collaboration with HIMSS Europe.

More than 4,000 app developers, healthcare professionals and mHealth practitioners contributed to the “The EU Countries’ mHealth App Market Ranking” survey. mHealth stands for mobile Health, which refers to using mobile devices for practicing medicine and public health issues.

The respondents were asked to rank European countries based on five criteria: eHealth adoption, level of digitalization, mHealth market potential, regulations and ease of starting a business, according to research2guicance.

Finland is among the countries with the highest market readiness and most developed market conditions, providing the best starting points for mHealth companies to succeed, reveals the survey results.

The country also has high patient participation in eHealth, which involves seeking health information online, representing 66 percent of internet users. When it comes to making online appointments, 35 percent of internet users do that. Both percentages are well above the EU average. In Finland, all patients’ data must be stored electronically, unlike most countries in the EU.

Health practitioners also gave high marks to the large number of available app developers, the need for remote medicine, as well as the high rate of connectivity among Finland’s general population. The survey respondents identified doctors’ acceptance of apps as the most important factor for the mHealth business.

Source: research2guidance