NEW YORK – The booming healthcare market, which is expected to account for nearly one-fifth of U.S. GDP by 2019, is driving a surge of activity from companies looking to mine opportunities for growth, differentiation and jobs, just as a new generation of tech-savvy consumers is creating a new market for digital and interactive health, according to PwC's Health Research Institute.

Seventy-six percent of Fortune 50 companies are either in the health industry or have health divisions, according to a recent survey.

PwC says that companies new to healthcare will need to stake their claims carefully. If they fail to understand market needs, consumer expectations and how they will get paid, they may find only "fool's gold."

Seen as one of the few bright spots in an otherwise sluggish economy, PwC says the health market is large, growing and hungry for fresh ideas, innovation and new participants, which can provide goods and services with higher quality or lower costs. The firm's research found that healthcare is creating new companies, jobs and markets for both traditional health organizations and new entrants from such industries as technology, telecommunications and retail.

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According to PwC's research:

• Nearly one in three American adults have worked, now work or would like to work in healthcare.
• Jobs in healthcare increased 65 percent between 1990 and 2009, while the rest of the workforce increased only 16 percent over the same time period.
• Of the Fortune 50 companies that have a stake in the healthcare industry, 24 percent would be considered traditional healthcare companies, but an estimated 52 percent are entering the healthcare market in non-traditional ways.
• A new generation of tech-savvy consumers is creating a new market for digital and interactive health.
• Consumers between the ages of 18 to 24 are two times more interested in mobile health applications or programs and three times more interested in health-related video games than those over the age of 65.
• Consumer demand for convenience and transparency in services and pricing is opening up channels for alternative sources of healthcare services. For example, the use of retail health clinics almost doubled in the past three years, from 10 percent of consumers who sought treatment at a retail health clinic in 2007 to 17 percent in 2010.
• Consumers' willingness to pay out-of-pocket for non-traditional healthcare products and services represents as much as $13.6 billion of new revenue annually, including $4 billion on health-related video games, $8.9 billion on resources that rate physicians and hospitals and $700 million on mobile health applications.

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"This is an exciting time for innovators who have a vision for what healthcare can be and the courage to act on it," said Kelly A. Barnes, US health industries leader at PwC. "The healthcare industry is not for the fainthearted. It is a highly regulated, complex industry, built on a system of third-party payments, and operates on principles foreign to companies that have succeeded in other industries. The organizations with the greatest potential for success will be those who understand the dynamics of the industry and identify the right niche where they can play a role in making the health system better."

To inform its research, PwC HRI conducted a thorough literature review, performed in-depth interviews and, in the fall of 2010, commissioned an online survey of more than 1,000 consumers, balanced by age and gender.

See the entire report here.