Telehealth Market Fuelled by Healthcare Demands

As the more developed countries improve reimbursement and liability legislations, growth in the telehealth market is forecast to start picking up in response to the needs of an aging population. These are the latest findings of InMedica (Wellingborough, United Kingdom), a point of care markets research company.

InMedica asserts that the initiatives taken by governments and private healthcare providers to increase reimbursements and reduce the legal and liability issues will help in the roll out of telehealth as a mainstream technology for remote disease and home-health monitoring. Consequently, InMedica predicts telehealth will start to be used by healthcare providers on a wider scale from the year 2012 onwards, and forecasts that the number of gateways used in telehealth applications will increase to over one million in 2014 and to around 3.6 million in 2018.

InMedica believes that in the short to medium term, health hubs--which currently constitute about 80% of the total gateways market--will remain the most practical solution for professional healthcare providers to supply to patients, as the infrastructure can then be standardized and simplified on a large scale. In addition, while the number of integrated cellular handsets used as telehealth gateways was estimated to be small in 2009, they are forecast to grow to over 350,000 in 2014.

"The use of mobile phones as telehealth gateways has had a surge of interest over the last couple of years; with patients and device companies recognizing the benefits of data transmission on the move,” said Neha Khandelwal, a market research analyst at InMedica. "We anticipate that cellular service providers will play an increasingly important role in the long-term future of the telehealth market.”

InMedica forecasts that health hubs will increasingly be used for managing disease conditions such as chronic heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In chronic disease conditions such as diabetes, cellular handsets will also find an increasing acceptance. Diabetics are already used to regular self-monitoring with blood glucose meters, and a number of device companies have already launched diabetes management programs that use cellular handsets for transmitting blood-glucose readings to care professionals. For these patients, progressing to a telehealth service will not be a massive lifestyle change for them; moreover, receiving regular feedback on their condition would be a great benefit.

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