Bruce V. Bigelow 7/6/10

Like most advances in the life sciences, ensuring reimbursement by medical insurance providers and getting new wireless devices through the government regulatory process will be crucial barriers for the emerging wireless health sector to overcome, according to Qualcomm chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs.

Jacobs, who was key to organizing a mobile health summit held in San Diego last week, was asked about what was called the mHealth Summit during a press conference that Qualcomm held in conjunction with its Brew MP mobile developers conference. Jacobs told reporters he wanted to bring leaders of the wireless and healthcare industry together to discuss mobile health technology in his role as chairman of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Wireless Communications, a committee organized by the Davos, Switzerland-based World Economic Forum (WEF).

“With 5 billion users on cell phones, it really is humanity’s most pervasive platform, and I think most people would agree that healthcare is probably humanity’s most pervasive problem,” Jacobs says in the interview. He also identifies “wellness” and “chronic care management” as the two biggest opportunities in wireless health where the cell phone and related mobile devices can help the most. In particular, Jacobs says chronic care management accounts for “75 percent of the healthcare budget” and that mobile devices can help cut care management costs by both monitoring patients and reminding them to stay on their treatment regimen.

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