Telemedicine Monitoring: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2012 to 2018

WinterGreen Research announces that it has published a new study Telemedicine. Market Shares, Strategy, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2012 to 2018. The 2012 study has 590 pages, 206 tables and figures. Worldwide markets are poised to achieve significant growth as the telemedicine systems provide a way to improve clinical care delivery to patients with chronic disease, decreasing hospitalizations and visits to the emergency room.

Chronic disease conditions are best treated early on when there is a change in patient condition and an early intervention can make a difference. It is even better to treat them in a wellness treatment environment before there are indications of chronic disease, before symptoms develop, by addressing lifestyle issues early on.

Left to their own judgments, some patients typically are apt to make terrible decisions relating to their personal health either because of ignorance, genetic inheritance, or because of lifestyle habit. The ability to accurately access patient condition via a combination of advanced testing and telemonitoring creates the opportunity to intervene when what is called for clinically can make a difference, and permits provision for education regarding healthy living in a way that is likely to create compliance with clinician recommendations.

Home telemonitoring programs need to use advanced technology. Effective monitors support patient education. They support timely clinician intervention based on real vital signs data gathered on a daily basis. Health care for patients with congestive heart failure has been shown to be successful in reducing hospitalizations and trips to the emergency department, making these critical measures unnecessary in many cases.

Home patient monitoring means two things: the imminent rise of the expert patient whom the health authorities anticipate would self-manage his long-term medical conditions and the prominence of mobile devices as the go-between for clinicians and patients.

Telemedicine markets are emerging software markets. The consumer tablet computers are poised to become ubiquitous and inexpensive. As this happens telemedicine is becoming a fee for services much as a cell phone. The software runs on industry standard tablet computing devices. Clinicians gather patients information on a daily basis and provide consultation and intervention as needed for chronic conditions. Telemedicine now delivered on proprietary devices is becoming obsolete. The Honeywell / Samsung strategic alliance represents the model that works. Telemedicine market analysis indicates that the price points are way below device costs and that companies are seeking to gain market share by working with clients.

Telemedicine device and software companies recognize that their revenue stream will come from services delivery. Just as cell phones are paid for in conjunctions with the services contracts, so also the telemedicine applications will be paid by insurance. In some cases the insurance companies recognize that their long term costs are lower by delivering clinical intervention to try to impact lifestyle for patients with chronic disease conditions.

The telemedicine in the home is cheaper than the consequent emergency room visits and hospitalizations that occur if chronic conditions are ignored. There is a certain inevitability related to chronic disease condition care delivery. People that take care of themselves tend to stay healthy. People that are not attentive to protecting their health tend to have medical conditions that contribute to deteriorating health and benefit from early intervention when it is delivered in a manner to which the person can relate. Telemedicine is, at its core, a way to extend clinical services to make them part of lifestyle consultation. . It provides a way to initiate two way communications with a patient, forever changing the doctor – patient relationship to a collaborative one. It means that physicians need to build collaboration skills or delegate those to their nurses which they have always done, but this time in a more effective manner, on that is supported by technology.