Connected Health Top 10: #4 Telehealth Meets Routine Care

Over the course of a few short years we have seen doubts about the effectiveness of telehealth technology transform into wide-spread adoption of those same technologies. Now that telehealth has proven successful at managing chronic conditions and care in remote rural settings, we will see this trend continue as health systems realize that breaking down the geographic boundaries around care offers not only new streams of income but also more cost effective mediums of care.

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The industry has witnessed retail clinics growing in popularity over the past few years. Estimates are that the number of retail clinics across the United States could reach 3,000 by the end of 2015. These retail clinics provide basic health services for patients that would otherwise go to the ER for a non-emergency medical care at a more affordable cost. However, growing routine care outside of the brick and mortar will evolve well beyond the retail clinic. The trends are set to make 2015 the year of direct-to-consumer telemedicine for more routine healthcare services.

Added to the care continuum will be the new role of “physician “extender”. These individuals serve as a first line of care for many patients as doctors continue to delegate tasks and monitor patients digitally. Telehealth services for routine care are then extended through video-based visits, smartphone apps, SMS messaging, and responsive websites that provide “asynchronous patient data exchange”. For everyday care, a triage nurse can act as a community manager over a social community of patients with the same conditions or interests. The industry is already witnessing trendsetting brands, such as Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic, offering these services via cable television and mobile applications, respectively. This growth will be met with an increased rate of reimbursement for telehealth by health plans that are also getting in on the action by providing sponsored telehealth programs of their own.

• The number of patients worldwide using telehealth services will rise from less than 350,000 in 2013 to roughly seven million in 2018
• revenue for telehealth services will balloon tenfold, from $440.6 million in 2013 to $4.5 billion in 2018
• A report published last month by Research and Markets estimated that the global telemedicine market will have a compound annual growth rate of 18.5 percent through 2018.