AT&T launched a set of cloud-based developer tools and infrastructure aimed at promoting the development of mHealth apps that are able to effectively integrate a range of medical data.

The AT&T Developer Center ForHealth beta helps developers to build, launch and scale healthcare apps that are able to share data across healthcare organisations and clinicians through the use of secure data storage and APIs.

The service should also help lower development costs, while the data storage used by the portal meets the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act security requirements.

AT&T said that many of the current mHealth apps have limited ability to access and share information due to the siloed way in which medical data is stored in proprietary systems that are difficult to integrate. The Developer Center is also aimed at creating an ecosystem in which different apps can link together to create more comprehensive healthcare portfolio.

"Developers are the true innovators that will drive mHealth forward. We're creating an ecosystem where they can easily utilize an open environment to build apps that transmit consumers' data from a variety of sources in a highly-secure manner," said VP for advanced mobility solutions at AT&T Business Solutions Chris Hill.

There are 17,000 mHealth apps already available in major app stores while 500 million people are expected to be using mHealth apps by 2015, according to analyst firm research2guidance.