Current State of Android Mobile Apps and mHealth Projects

According to data just released by Black Duck Software, development of new Android mobile projects have expanded by no less than 96% each year since 2007. See their chart showing cumulative growth for Android versus Apple iOS projects from 2007-2012 at http://www.blackducksoftware.com/files/images/Cumulative-Open-Source-Mobile-Projects.png

The data on growth of open source mobile projects over a 5 year period was culled from the Black Duck KnowledgeBase and the Ohloh.net repositories that contain data on over a million open source projects. Over 15,000 new Android mobile projects were launched in 2012.

According to Peter Vescuso, EVP of Marketing & Business Development at Black Duck, "Mobility is forcing IT organizations, IT suppliers, and traditional manufacturers to re-invent who they are and what they do, from healthcare to financial services to the automotive industry, and that re-invention is occurring in a fundamentally new way, with open innovation fueled by the growth and influence of the open source community."

Brief descriptions and  links to selected open source mobile health (mHealth) projects and apps like eMocha, FrontlineSMS, JavaROSA, Medic Mobile, and many others have been posted in the Open Health News (OHN) Resources Database.  Readers might also want to check out some of the top free mHealth apps currently posted on Android Market.

Finally, with regards to the use of mobile devices and their use in the U.S. for healthcare purposes, a recent report on Mobile Health published by the Pew Research Center found that 85% of U.S. adults own a cell phone. In the Pew survey, they also found that one in three cell phone owners (31%) use their phones to look for health information. In addition, approximately 20% of smartphone owners have at least one health app on their phone. 

The numbers are only going to keep on growing. For more news and information about mHealth posted by Open Health News, go to http://www.openhealthnews.com/search/node/%22mobile%20health%22%20survey