The question of how to get effective and affordable healthcare to those who need it, regardless of location, has been a difficult one for governments, healthcare providers and policy makers globally.
Of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals, three relate directly to improving access to healthcare, in order to help the billions of people in both developed and developing countries that have no or limited access to such services. A proposal from the Global Economic Symposium estimated that low and middle-income countries “bear 93% of the world´s disease burden, yet account for only 18% of world income and 11% of global health spending”.
However, increased spending on remote healthcare is going a long way towards increasing access to healthcare worldwide.
Global IT spending for remote healthcare delivery hit $24.45 billion in 2014 and should reach $75.38 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 25.26%.
Remote healthcare delivery can be generally divided into mHealth and telehealth, with Telehealth accounting for an 82.62% market share.
Telehealth
Telehealth encompasses any healthcare delivered via telecom technology, which can extend to both in-home healthcare as well as facilities in remote areas.
By leveraging Telehealth, physicians can monitor their patients’ progress and offer ongoing feedback at any time. The system allows for real-time interaction between onsite and remote parties, which is usually done on an online video platform.
mHealth
mHealth facilitates healthcare delivery via mobile device. The popularity of mobile devices and the need to reduce healthcare costs are the main factors driving the mHealth market.
With the help of mobile apps, patients can quickly locate a doctor’s location in a given area and receive a real-time consultation. The increasing number of patients using mHealth boosts the efficiency of healthcare facilities and contributes to revenue growth. As doctors and physicians become more comfortable with the mobile healthcare platform, vendors can expand the scope of their solutions by including more administrative functions for improving payment processes and workflows.
Common standards need to be developed before remote healthcare can really take off
But despite the growing popularity of these services, there are still some major challenges getting in the way of more aggressive growth of remote healthcare.
A lack of common standards and classification for telehealth applications in different countries, particularly in rural areas, is deterring market growth. Even within the same country, laws can differ. In the US, for example, Telehealth policies vary significantly by region. In Texas, physicians can treat their patient through remote delivery systems as long as they meet quality standard of in-person care. In states such as Mississippi and New Mexico, physicians can prescribe drugs via electronic medium after verifying a patient’s identity.
Some countries have even created laws and regulations that impede the adoption of remote healthcare services. In some areas, it is mandatory to establish a physical, in-person physician-patient relationship in order for a doctor to prescribe medication, which seriously limits the viability of telehealth services.
However, despite these challenges, spending on remote healthcare services will continue to grow over the next four years. Global increases in chronic illnesses and a shortage of physicians is putting huge amounts of pressure on healthcare organizations, and both patients and healthcare providers will look to mHealth and Telehealth services to help alleviate some of this pressure through the forecast period.
