research2guidance and HIMSS Europe have come together to analyze the market readiness for mHealth app companies of the 28 EU member states through “The EU Countries’ mHealth App Market Ranking” survey.

More than 5,000 app developers, healthcare professionals and mHealth practitioners were asked to rank European countries based on their experience and provide reasons for their ranking. The practitioners view is combined with facts based evaluation for each country, based on five dimensions and 26 market condition criteria such as eHealth adoption, level of digitalization, market size and health expenditure, ease of starting a business and the mHealth regulatory framework.

Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Sweden and UK proved to have the highest market readiness and most mature market conditions, providing the best starting points for mHealth companies to succeed. The UK is leading the way, according to 55% of mHealth practitioners, due to the openness and positive attitude many doctors in the country have when it comes to new technology and integrating mHealth solutions into patient treatments.

Germany and France emerged with mixed results: on the one hand these two markets have enormous potential when it comes to the amount which has been invested in patients, doctors, hospitals and healthcare on a whole. However, rankings for eHealth and mHealth adoption in Germany and France were extremely low, showing these countries are more reluctant to embrace the digitalization of healthcare, thus classifying themselves as “average” countries to invest in mHealth.

“The survey results will provide a great platform for discussion and give us an insight into how ready European countries really are to adopt mHealth and the challenges that some countries are yet to overcome, meanwhile giving entrepreneurs a head-start when deciding which country would be best to start an mHealth business,” said Rainer Herzog, General Manager at HIMSS Europe.