Lee Young-Tark, Chief Business Officer of new KT-backed H∞H Healthcare, says information gathered from patients via mobile networks will play an increasingly important role in mobile health. “In the future, we expect a big growth in the big data relevant market as (health information system) medical and personal data are collected through remote management”.

Young-Tark was describing to Mobile Health Live the growth prospects for healthcare following the launch of H∞H Healthcare – in which mobile operator KT holds a 49 percent stake – at the end of July.

Harvesting data from users' smartphones as well as medical devices via 3G networks is generally viewed as an important trend but Young-Tark's comments indicate the equally important issue is whether mobile operators can then crunch the resulting data in a meaningful way.

The launch announcement promised to offer services this year that support the information systems of small and medium-sized hospitals. It also talked about entering international markets. Intriguingly, the announcement talked about the joint venture improving global healthcare “through the establishment of a network of hospitals”, an unusual strategy for a mobile operator.

However, Young-Tark would supply no more information on either domestic or foreign launches for the joint venture although he said such projects are under development. The venture is 51 percent owned by Korea’s Yonsei University Medical Center.

But he did supply more information on the plans to develop a regular health-check system called U-Wellness. The service will focus on employee welfare, said Young-Tark, when it launches both in Korea and internationally in 2013.

KT is targeting healthcare revenues of approximately KRW800 billion (US$700 million) to KRW1 trillion by 2016.