Forthcoming Report Says Home Telehealth Market Is $5.6 Billion and Expected to Grow by 70%

The home telehealth and remote patient monitoring market is currently close to a $5.6 billion level and will continue to grow at close to 70% for at least the next three to five years, according to a new strategic report published by Insight and Intelligence, a Mary Ann Liebert company. Insight and Intelligence interviewed industry leaders, conducted surveys, utilized government and other agency databases, as well as reviews of published literature to provide an in-depth look at the home telehealth and remote patient monitoring market segment of the telemedicine industry.

The healthcare provider market segment (companies that provide telemedicine services to health care providers) is represented by a number of small to medium-sized companies with average annual revenue of approximately $6.6 million. These companies' combined average revenue growth, however, is significant, approaching 72%. Consumer companies (defined as companies that provide services directly to the consumer) tend to be larger with combined average annual revenue of approximately $121.3 million. Their combined annual revenue growth is even more explosive than that of healthcare provider companies, with a combined average range of 118.5% to 193.5%.

The full report will be available in late June from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

(Source: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Press Release, May 22, 2008)

New Economic Analysis of Email-Based Telemedicine Available

Email-based telemedicine has been reported to be an efficient method of delivering online health services to patients at a distance and is often described as a low-cost form of telemedicine. A new study by researchers at the Center for Online Health at the University of Queensland, Australia, finds that the service may be low-cost if the healthcare organization utilizes their existing email infrastructure to provide their telemedicine service. When the workload exceeded 5216 email consultations per annum, there were savings made when a purpose-written email application was used.

The full analysis was published by the open access journal BioMed Central and the full report is available for free download [pdf].

(Source: BioMed Central, May 22, 2008)

International Telemedicine Nonprofit Organization to Treat 30,000 Child

The Medical Missions for Children charity (MMC) recently announced that will treat its 30,000th child via telehealth in June. The organization has created what it calls the Global Telemedicine & Teaching Network to enable U.S.-based doctors to consult with foreign pediatric physicians through a distance-medicine network called the Telemedicine Outreach Program so they can help diagnose and treat children worldwide. Technology also has allowed MMC to expand its services to include educational content for health care providers and patients in multiple countries.

Read more here.