Telemedicine has become much more than a pandemic mainstream. The shortage of healthcare providers and growing consumer demand were key factors expanding the scale of telehealth services. However, today, practices are opting for telemedicine software development to achieve the so-called “quadruple aim” – better patient outcomes, improved user experience, lower costs, and enhanced clinician experience.
According to the statistics, today, digital consultations are chosen 38 times more often than in pre-COVID-19 Pandemic times while traditional healthcare is witnessing a paradigm shift.
Future of Telemedicine: Advantages and Growth Drivers
As technology evolves and digital care becomes more and more widely available, we can expect to experience even greater adoption rates.
In 2020, the telemedicine tech market reached a value of $40.205 million and is forecasted to grow to $431.823 million by 2030, increasing at a CAGR of 25.9% in ten years.
Doctors, patients, and healthcare providers greatly benefit from the ability to give and receive digital consultations. Nowadays, even not big independent practices offer telemedicine services to their patients to remain competitive and patient-centric.
The Main Advantages of Telemedicine Include:
24/7 Access to Medical Care
Telemedicine enables more efficient use of time and resources, as digital consultations eliminate the need for patients to travel long distances to see a doctor. This is particularly beneficial for people who live in remote areas, and people suffering from infectious and chronic diseases.
Cost-Effectiveness
Telemedicine has proven to be much more cost-effective than traditional care. The research from mHealth Intelligence that studied the implementation of a virtual healthcare platform at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland has shown a 50% reduction in the cost of patient care.
While patients can save on avoiding costly and unnecessary emergency room visits, practices reduce overhead costs associated with maintaining physical facilities and staffing requirements. As a result, according to FCC estimations, telehealth technologies can potentially save the US healthcare industry a staggering $305 billion per year.
Enhanced Patient Satisfaction
The survey held by McKinsey shows that 55% of patients agree that they get a higher quality of care via telehealth as compared to in-office medical visits. Patients receive more convenient and personalized care
Risk of Contracting Infectious Diseases
This is particularly beneficial for people managing health conditions such as hypertension or heart failure. So what are the factors that contribute to the growth of telemedicine?
Such platforms are already being offered internationally by companies like Oxford Medical Simulation; their scenarios include a wide range of specialties, including community health, psychiatry, pediatrics, nursing, and medicine.
The study by Harvard Business Review found that VR usage for training increasedsurgeons’ productivity by 230%in comparison to conventionally trained doctors.
Bigger Integration and Organizing Information with EHR
Many hospitals use diverse systems for physicians, labs, radiologists, and remote monitoring devices which makes data exchange more susceptible to cybersecurity risks due to technological and data incompatibilities between various suppliers.
In addition to increasing clerical workloads, poorly linked systems can result in physician burnout. It has been estimated that physicians spent two hours on electronic health records-related chores for every hour of clinical activity, endangering the health system’s capacity and effectiveness.
Therefore, EHR/EMR systems embedded into hospital software are becoming one of the major telehealth trends as they help to maximize the benefits of telemedicine, increasing cyber-security and team-based care delivery.
Enhancing Diagnostics with Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is one of the past, present, and future trends in telehealth.
One of the notable examples of using AI for diagnostics is Enlitic which leverages deep learning methods to expedite radiology diagnosis. Enlitic gives medical personnel important insights into patients’ health situations by evaluating unstructured medical data, including blood tests, EKGs, and radiology pictures.
Expanding Wearable Medical Technologies
The ability of wearable sensors to detect physiological and biochemical markers has advanced significantly. Wearable sensors give big promises for the early diagnosis of diseases and overseeing chronic conditions by monitoring vital signs such as body temperature, arterial oxygen saturation, and breathing rate.
Here are the examples of some emerging wearable medical devices:
- ADAMM by Health Care Originals is a combination of hardware and cardiopulmonary-tracking software that is leveraged to monitor respiration, heart rate, temperature, etc.
- Embrace 2 by Empatica is a wrist-worn device designed for epilepsy patients that detects seizures which trigger alerts sent to caretakers.
- SEERS’ Bio Patch by Seers Technology is a wireless device to track heart rate, respiration rate, etc.
- Leaf Sensor by Leaf Healthcare Inc. tracks a user’s turn frequency, turn angle, and damage caused when blood flow returns to tissue, this way, preventing pressure injury.
- Ava by Ava Science Inc. is worn as a bracelet to track female fertility in real time.
HL7 FHIR
HL7 is an international exchange standard that addresses the challenge of bridging the gap between healthcare providers and the applications they use for keeping track of patients’ data, managing billing systems, providing care remotely, etc. In 2014, HL7 introduced a new standard, FHIR (pronounced “fire”) which became a next-generation standards framework that combines the best elements of HL7 v2, HL7 v3, and HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) leveraging the most modern web service technology at the same time.
Why do so many healthcare providers choose FHIR over HL7 now?
To make a long story short:
- FHIR uses more efficient data structures that are flexible and extensible.
- It enhances data management by retrieving real-time records, which helps to ensure data accuracy.
- It has greater scalability potential.
- FHIR is more cost-efficient.
- FHIRgreater gives patients better control over their records when medical data is shared with them, which leads to increased trust in healthcare services and specialists.
Here is a timeline of HL7 standards development:
If you want to have a deeper understanding of this telehealth trend in healthcare, we have a blog explaining the difference between FHIR vs HL7.
Focus on Mental Health
Digital mental health visits are also among trends in telemedicine as they rank highest among the specialties in 2023.
Telemedicine helps patients avoid substance-related disorders, anxiety, and depression. By facilitating regular check-ins, therapeutic sessions, and real-time monitoring, telemedicine becomes a key driver in preventing the escalation of substance-related disorders and mental health challenges. The accessibility and convenience of virtual appointments dismantle traditional barriers to seeking help, fostering a supportive environment for individuals to address concerns before they intensify.
Of course, there are many more trends in telemedicine to come as the industry is developing rapidly. Some of the telemedicine future trends are:
How to Benefit From Telemedicine Trends?
The telemedicine market has experienced significant growth since its inception in the 2000s. Being not a new idea, telehealth has dramatically expanded its capabilities due to technology integration. In the future, we can expect its rapid growth and development.
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