Telehealth Video Consultation to Reach 158 Million Annually by 2020

While clinical video consultations lead the market today with sessions in non-clinical settings and will represent the majority within four years. Thus, telehealth video consultations are set to take off, even though the digital health industry is still in its formative years, it has a firm foothold and is poised for strong growth in the coming years, according to a new report Tractica. According to the research firm, telemedicine is set to expand in terms of use cases, deployments and adoption of the technology.

According to the organization’s new report “Telehealth Video Consultations”, examines the market and technology issues surrounding telehealth video consultations for both clinical and non-clinical applications, telehealth video consultation sessions will increase from 19.7 million in 2014 to 158.4 million per year by 2020. The market intelligence firm anticipates that while clinical consultations currently constitute more than three-quarters of the market, growth throughout the next several years will be especially strong in non-clinical settings.
The firm suggests that non-clinical video consultations will outnumber clinical consultations by 2019.
According to the report, key technology enablers for growth in the telehealth market include: better video conferencing technologies, increased penetration of connected devices and broadband adoption. As well, several market factors are making the use of telehealth technology more valuable, including physician shortages, rising healthcare costs, the need to serve aging populations and the number of people living with chronic diseases. In addition, telehealth video consultations lend themselves to a wide range of medical treatments and use cases; “providers and payers alike are finding quantifiable value in deploying video-based patient monitoring solutions, both in terms of positive patient outcomes and cost savings” the report claims.
Barriers remain to broader adoption of telehealth video consultations, though, including the initial high cost of deploying services, particularly in the clinical environment. In addition, not all payers reimburse for services rendered via video conferencing, and telehealth video consultations continue to face resistance by some physicians, patients and regulatory bodies.
“Telehealth video consultations lend themselves to a wide variety of medical treatments and use cases,” said principal analyst Charul Vyas in a statement. “The flexibility and efficiency of video conferencing is helping healthcare providers and payers to achieve tangible value in deploying video-based patient monitoring solutions, both in terms of positive patient outcomes and cost savings. However, the market still faces a variety of challenges, including the high initial cost of deploying services, inconsistent reimbursement models for telehealth consultations, and some continuing resistance by physicians, patients, and regulatory bodies.”
The Tractica report also presents forecasts for telehealth sessions and revenue during the period from 2014 through 2020, segmented by session type and world region.