The document discusses the growth of telemedicine and its potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery. Telemedicine uses technology to allow medical professionals to diagnose and consult with patients remotely, increasing access to care. Several examples are provided of telemedicine applications like teledermatology that have reduced costs and wait times while improving health outcomes.

1. Summary Report by Ludwig Eckl, February 14th 2013
Telemedicine – Future of Clinical Medicine
Telemedicine is a rapidly developing application of clinical medicine where medical information is
transferred through interactive audiovisual media for the purpose of consulting remote medical procedures
or examinations, reducing the time of consultation for patients.
Telemedicine may be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone or as
complex as using satellite technology and videoconferencing equipment to conduct a real-time consultation
between medical specialists in two different countries. Telemedicine generally refers to the use of
communications and information technologies for the delivery of clinical care. This medical practice has
dramatically reduced the time of consultation for patients.
- Teledermatology:
Teledermatology (as an application of telemedicine was developed in 1995) can also aid in
prevention and diagnosis of skin cancer. Nowadays, a reduction of morbidity and mortality of
nonmelanoma and melanoma skin cancer is the most important challenge for dermatology:
teledermatology can be considered a new tool that allows preventing and diagnosing skin cancers.
Dermoscopic images of pigmented skin lesions can be transmitted through internet to remote
teleconsultants. The feasibility of teledermoscopy reveals a 91% consensus between the face-to-face
diagnosis and the remote diagnosis.
Teledermatology has gained a lot of interest among scientific community. It can deeply revolutionize
the delivery of dermatology services, providing equitable services to remote areas and allowing
primary care physicians to refer patients to well-equipped dermatological services at a distance.
Images can be transmitted via a virtual private network to the teledermoscopists, and those ones
can be made mobile as the technology is portable, overcoming geographical barriers, and delivering
service to remote areas.
Source: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijta/2011/125762/
Telemedicine as a standard of care:
Medical images, like x-rays and CT scans, have been viewed in digital form for forty years. "Teleradiology" is
now so common that many hospitals don't recognize the name – outsourcing part or all of a radiology
program is just the way things are now done in healthcare. Providing 24/7 services by a radiologist, using
telehealth technologies, may be the first form of telemedicine that becomes a true standard of care.

2. The rise of virtual medical centers:
There are many such examples which show growing trend and investment done by hospitals and health
firms to set up virtual medical centers. A remote clinical enterprise is when a hospital outsources specialties
such as neurology and psychiatry to a vendor that can provide the services 24/7 via telehealth.
Once such prominent example is of Mercy Hospitals, which announced that it would build a $90 million
virtual care center near its headquarters in Chesterfield, Missouri. On a smaller scale, intensivists at Inova
Health System in Virginia are based at corporate office building and provide remote ICU services to 122 ICU
beds throughout northern Virginia.
Some Important Facts:
- Australia has the highest skin cancer incidence rate in the world. About one in ten reported cancers is a
melanoma. The most recent figures show more than 10,000 diagnoses a year and 1400 deaths.
- The worldwide telehealth (remote patient monitoring) market will grow by 55 percent in 2013 in terms of
device and service revenues.
- From 2010 to 2011, the telehealth usage worldwide increased by 22.2 percent.
- Telehealth device revenues only grew by 5 percent over that same time span; they grew 18 percent from
2011 to 2012.
- 2.8 million patients worldwide used home-based remote monitoring devices in 2012. Forecast is that the
number of these systems with integrated communication capabilities would grow to 9.4 million connections
worldwide by 2017.
- Telemedicine-dedicated device and software markets at $736 million in 2011 are anticipated to reach $2.5
billion by 2018.
Who Predicted What for 2012?
- Wall Street Projected telemedicine to be $6bn industry in 2012
- Data Monitor projected the same be $8bn industry in 2012
- TechNavio goes four fold then Wall Street projections and predicted $17.8bn industry in 2012

3. Global Telemedicine market:
World Telemedicine Industry
27.3
($bn)
11.6
9.8
2010 2011 2016
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/mobile-wireless/global-telemedicine-market-headed-for-27/232602930
Global Telemedicine Market on Basis of Technology:
Global Telemedicine Market
(on basis of technology)
2016 11.3
($bn)
2011 4.6
2010 3.8
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/mobile-wireless/global-telemedicine-market-headed-for-27/232602930

4. Global Market for Telemedicine & Telehospital Services:
GLobal Market ($bn)
Telemedicine Services Telehospital Services
16
10.6
7
5.9 5.5
4.8
2010 2011 2016
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/mobile-wireless/global-telemedicine-market-headed-for-27/232602930
Telemedicine for Diabetes:
- By 2020 estimated 7.2 million Americans will have diabetic retinopathy. Right now, nearly 26 million
Americans have diabetes, and there are an additional 79 million Americans who are pre-diabetic. To treat
this large diabetic population and surge in future diabetic retinopathy patients, there are 20,000
ophthalmologists and 30,000 optometrists in practice which is not enough. The demand for eye care will
increase when that occurs. Furthermore, as demand for eye care grows and the supply of eye care
practitioners fails to keep pace, greater efficiencies will be needed.
- To cope up with this growing demand eye care practitioners see telemedicine as a viable alternative due to
the speed of the interaction and time saved in the office. Telemedicine offers a way to quickly and
inexpensively segregate diabetics without retinopathy from those with retinopathy who need additional
evaluation and treatment. Telemedicine also provides for more coordination of care between specialists
who are managing a single patient.
- Telemedicine provides a reliable, cost-effective means of screening diabetic patients for retinopathy, which
can lead to blindness. Since the number of diabetics in the United States is growing fast, but the supply of
eye-care practitioners is not, healthcare resources are strained and becoming more so. Certainly, not every
diabetic now receives the standard of care, an annual eye exam, but that situation will likely worsen unless
alternative healthcare delivery systems are employed to address it. With new, easy-to-use, non-mydriatic
cameras, nurses and medical assistants without any ophthalmic training can learn to take excellent fundus
photographs. These images can be transmitted to a reading center where they can be expertly assessed.

5. - Diabetes costs US almost $100 billion per year. Research shows that using e-health technologies to help
patients prevent a deterioration of their health condition, as well as reduce costly emergency room visits,
validates the pursuit of using these tools, especially among economically disadvantaged patients.
Source: http://www.retinalphysician.com/articleviewer.aspx?articleID=107266
The top five telehealth markets in North America, in ranking order, are:
- Home healthcare and disease management monitoring
- Remote doctor and specialist services
- Personal emergency response systems (PERSs)
- Video diagnostic consultation
- Remote cardiac services
When combined, these markets generate more than $1.9 billion in revenue.
Video Telemedicine Market (North America):
Let’s have a look at market segmentation of video telemedicine market in North America –
Video Telemedicine
Market
Endpoints Supporting Segments
Low Tier Software and Hosted
High Tier Mid Tier Carts Services
Infrastructure
Source: Frost & Sullivan

6. Contact:
Ludwig Eckl
Ludwig.Eckl@gmail.com