US Brain Fitness Market: Significant and Growing

Alvaro Fernandez discusses the future of the brain fitness market in The Health Care Blog. According to Fernandez, a spate of recent global news coverage on cognitive fitness and "brain training" reflects a growing interest in innovative interventions to keep our brains sharp as we age. This interest is very timely, given an aging population, the increasing prevalence of Alzheimer's, and the growing body of research linking a number of clinical conditions with specific cognitive deficits. The size of the US brain fitness market was estimated to be $225m in 2007 - more than double what it was in 2005. Consumers were responsible for most of the growth from 2005 to 2007, followed by health care and insurance providers. Fernandez estimates that the consumer segment grew from a few million in 2005 to $80m in 2007, and the health care/ insurance one from $35m to $65m, and foresee continued growth in both. Open questions

Since this is a new, rapidly growing field, we have many open questions about the industry, which will only be clarified with time:

• Will consumer behavior change to adopt preventive brain exercises that take more time and effort than swallowing a pill?
• How can consumers and professionals assess which cognitive priorities require most attention and track progress due to brain training? In the absence of clear biomarkers, will cognitive assessments become commonplace as objective baselines?
• What business model and offering will succeed? Software product sales? Online subscriptions? Fun games with unproven brain benefits? Programs that improve the mental skills involved in specific activities, such as driving? Applications that help slow down the progression from Mild Cognitive Impairment to full-blown Alzheimer's symptoms?
• Will therapeutic applications be regulated by the FDA?

Top three trends to watch: 2007-2015

Here are some of the predictions Fernandez made:

• Brain fitness goes mainstream. An increased emphasis on brain fitness and maintenance will spread to retirement communities, gyms and health clubs. Will health clubs one day offer brain fitness programs, and perhaps "brain coaches" alongside rowing machines and step-masters? We think so, as we expect physical and mental exercise to become better integrated.
• Leveraging better assessment and training tools. Better and more widely available assessments of cognitive function will enable us to establish an objective baseline of how our minds are evolving, identify priorities for "workouts" and lifestyle interventions, and help us measure progress. Just as we find a variety of machines in health clubs today, in the future we can expect different programs tailored to train specific cognitive functions and desired outcomes.
• A growing ecosystem around those tools, including widespread incentives to use brain fitness products. For example, insurance companies will introduce incentives for members who want to follow brain fitness programs and companies will offer brain fitness training programs to attract and retain mature workers who want access to the best and the latest innovations to keep their minds sharp.