Tele-health is a broad market description for any home based equipment that monitors patients in their home and gathers health related information that is communicated, in some fashion, to health care providers and other stake holders. A sub-set of this market is the home monitoring of physical and physiological health data utilizing various FDA approved devices (Most common: Blood Pressure, Glucose Meter, Weight Scale, Pulse Ox). In addition, services have been developed to capture frequent data on the patient’s quality of life and health status incrementally to the physical and physiological measurements. This type of remote technology—which is referred to as tele-health and home health monitoring—is a$3 billion market in North America and Europe, and is projected to reach $7.7 billion by 2012. (US NEWS and World Report, April 20, 2009)
Around the world, people are living longer and striving to lead independent, happy, and healthy lives. At the same time, we are seeing a dramatic rise in the number of people with illnesses—and high costs associated with managing and treating them.
The healthcare community is looking for new approaches to meet these challenges and are seeking approaches where:
- Patients remain at home
- Patients and clinicians work together to achieve the best outcomes
- Patients are viewed in their totality, including their health status, as well as their social network, and their individual capabilities and preferences
The ageing population in the United States is a long-term driver of growth for tele-health solutions and services. The number of baby boomers entering a classifiable disease risk category is increasing by 6 percent annually. Moreover, the number of Americans suffering from multiple chronic conditions is expected to grow rapidly over the next two decades. Currently, there are no planned investments or a significant increase in health care facilities to cater to the requirements of the baby boomer population. In this context, remote patient monitoring (RPM) and disease management (DM) are considered the key solutions in providing health care in the future. Accordingly, participants in the U.S. tele-health solutions markets are likely to witness exciting growth opportunities.
Most recently, the Tele-health market has been boosted by the direct support of innovation, in this home health technology space, by the Obama administration. Funding in the Stimulus Package is specifically target to support and fund the expansion and real world utilization of this type of technology. It is indeed an exciting time to be a part of this market.
There have been four main barriers to the rapid expansion of the Tele-health/Remote Patient Monitoring market. These are:
- Cost
- Lack of Reimbursement by Government and other payers
- Ease of use
- Proven ROI
The Med-Quest product addresses the first three issues directly and is well positioned to prove a very positive ROI