SPORTS AND HEALTH DATA VIA BLOCKCHAIN

The usage of mobile health (mHealth) apps and wearables is ever-growing. More than 52% of smart phone users gather health-related information on their phone. In 2016 alone, mHealth app store downloads totalled 3.2 billion. Health-related data is a precious asset for both individuals and stakeholders in the data-driven sports, health and wellness industry.

However, the users generating this data cannot aggregate, share and monetize it. Moreover, because it lacks the means to interconnect existing data, the industry cannot unlock its full potential for the benefit of all market players. The rise of mHealth applications has not yet delivered on the promise of digital technology empowering individuals and resulting in better health care and a more connected sports and wellness market.

CHALLENGES OF THE MOBILE HEALTH DATA INDUSTRY

The digital health market is exploding both in number of new companies and with the expected market size of $233.3 billion by 2020. Much of growth is predicted to come from the mobile health (mHealth) market. In 2016 alone, the estimated total number of mHealth apps increased 57%2. In that same year, the number mHealth app store downloads totalled 3.2 billion, with 52% of smartphone users gathering health-related information on their phone3. Most newer phones have inbuilt health-related data gathering capacities predicating this number to soar in the upcoming years

. What data are we gathering? Over the years, the fastest-growing mHealth sector was the fitness and wellness domain with a projected compound annual growth (CAGR) of 48.1%4 . 65% of all mHealth apps in the U.S. connect to wellness services, among which fitness has a strong leadership position with 36% of the total apps. Top categories also include weight loss, exercise, women’s health, sleep and meditation.

MAJOR INDUSTRY SHORTAGES OWNERSHIP

In 2011, the World Economic Forum announced personal data to be a new asset class. Among all data classes, health related data is one of the most valued and expensive assets. However, it turns out that our personal data is not our personal asset

. The quantified self is a term denoting “self-knowledge through self-tracking”. While it might have been a voluntary movement back in 20075, nowadays we are all voluntarily or involuntarily part of this movement if we use a smartphone with health data tracking, any mHealth app or a fitness wearable. The problem is that while we are busy quantifying ourselves, the companies whose products we are using are busy collecting our data and generating profits from it. And this is a big concern for users

. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that “many health apps may be sharing patients’ health data without their knowledge”6. Another study on reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk with the help of mHealth apps and wearables concludes that:

Furthermore, CVDs are the number one cause of death globally: more people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 17.7 million people died from CVDs in 2015, representing 31% of all global deaths. At the same time, WHO stresses that “most cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by addressing behavioural risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and obesity, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol”8.

Thus, incentivizing healthy behaviour is one of the crucial challenges for health innovations. At Lympo, we believe that part of the answer is allowing users to own the data they generate. Lympo presents a health/fitness app data aggregator that does not share users’ data, but enables them to monetize it instead.

BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATIONS IN THE HEALTH INDUSTRY

Healthcare might be a latecomer in the booming growth of enterprise blockchain apps, but it is getting more and more prominence as a promising technology to solve major issues in the sector of health data management even on a governmental scale.

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