When we talk about new product development in Chapter 5, we can use the smartphone as an example of the platform for a new industry–mobile health care apps. Businessweek (Oct.2-9, 2011) reports on a new wave of smartphone apps and 
attachments that may “make health care fundamentally different than it used to be”. For example, in the past few months, products that turn a phone into a blood pressure measuring cuff, a CT-scan viewer, and other devices have received FDA approval. By 2015, 30% of smartphone users will be using mobile health products, says one consultant.
Here is one example: When Dr. Brian Froelke joined emergency responders to the Joplin, Missouri tornado, he brought a hairbrush-sized attachment to his Toshiba smartphone. The device, by Mobisante Corp., converts the phone into a pocket ultrasound machine. He used it to examine a pregnant woman who came into a temporary hospital complaining of stomach pain. “It was useful to reassure the mom that the baby didn’t have any obvious problems”, Froelke says. Mobisante is in talks with the US Army, which is interested in using the portable device to diagnose wounded soldiers in the field.
At $7,495, Froelke’s attachment was also less expensive than a hospital ultrasound machine that can cost $100,000. It’s “easily the best bang for your buck”, says an ER doctor who reviewed it for Emergency Physicians Monthly. By reducing costs for insurers and medical providers, mobile health-focused startups hope to grab a slice of the $273 billion medical equipment market from giants such as GE and Philips. “Big companies of tomorrow are the small companies of today”, adds the CEO of a firm that makes a $129 blood pressure cuff that attaches to iPhones.
Discussion questions:
1. Why are these new devices are important to OM managers.
2. How are these devices going to impact medical practice here and abroad.