New innovations in telemedicine as a service offering continue to pave the way for a broadly accepted reality where patients interact remotely with their doctors, powered by computer video connection.
Businesses built on investment in telemedicine are logically focused on providing better quality patient care at more efficient cost. Potential marketplace benefits include in particular reducing the need for in-office visits through live video conference tools and remote interactions between patients and providers – for patient monitoring, counseling and prescription management.
In parallel, a plethora of human-device-interfaces are being researched that allow an actual improvement in treatment outcomes beyond “merely” improving the process work flow involved.
The use of virtual video treatment for patient care notably raises questions around the decrease in human interaction between healthcare professionals and the patients they are treating, especially concerning the cost benefit analysis of today’s status-quo vs. an aspirational more cost effective setup with a transitory stage of increased error.
While the simple idea behind telemedicine follows a natural evolution in terms of leveraging technology to enhance patient care, healthcare industry regulators are keeping a close eye on the budding industry to deter illicit practitioner activity and on means to standardize quality assurance guidelines for telehealth services generally.
It is clear that adoption is subject to higher scrutiny than digitalization in other industries, and the pace observed needs to be considered in that light.
As licensing and standards of practice develop in the United States and abroad, providers are seeking to expand market share through partnering with health insurance companies for broader patient access and more structured compensation frameworks.
Looking to the future, telemedicine may have significant impacts in fostering patient rehabilitation and keeping patients out of hospital by leveraging new video platforms and data systems to enhance patient success outcomes. The segment continues to attract investment and we expect to see a range of growth and exit-oriented transactions in the years to come.