Abstract/Summary

Mobile health (mHealth) services are growing rapidly across the western world. This has been enabled by the near-ubiquity of broadband and mobile communications and relatively inexpensive smartphones acting as both a very powerful processor and a sophisticated communications gateway between body-worn sensors and healthcare providers. However, people living in remote regions or in less-developed countries may not be able to afford or have access to these technologies. IoT devices and long-range, low-power communications offer the potential for affordable community-centred healthcare monitoring services. Reach-back to regional or central healthcare services could be enabled by satellite communications. A survey is presented of ‘New Space’ satellite constellations optimised for IoT traffic, which should result in more affordable prices, thus allowing a wider demographic to join in mHealth benefits.