Telemonitoring market demand up with rise in chronic diseases

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 07 December 2011 01:39

IT Industry - Market

Rising rates of chronic disease are pushing healthcare providers into seeking better and more-cost-effective ways of delivering care, with telemonitoring technology showing great promise, but yet to be widely implemented, according to a global market survey.

According to a new report from UK-based medical and pharmaceutical market analysis firm, Espicom, early results of its telemonitoring survey reveal significant operational obstacles which must be overcome in the medium term if the industry is to reach its full commercial potential.

However, Espicom does predict that the global telemonitoring market could be set for rapid growth, driven by the world's ageing population and increasingly unhealthy lifestyles, which are 'leading more and more people to need care for chronic diseases.'

Telemonitoring lets doctors monitor a patient's health while the patient is at home, collecting vital signs data and information on current symptoms, medication, diet and exercise, and alerting healthcare providers if a patient's health is deteriorating so that action can be taken.

Joanne Maddox, senior health analyst at Espicom and the report's author, says that interest in telemonitoring is on the rise due to its potential to improve the health of patients with chronic diseases, enable people to receive care in the comfort of their own home and reduce the number of patients that have to been seen in doctors' surgeries.

'With the World Health Organization estimating that chronic diseases now account for twice as many deaths as communicable diseases, including HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, and predicting that deaths due to chronic disease will increase by 17% over the next 10 years, the need to effectively manage these conditions has never been more pressing,' Maddox says.

'The global economic downturn and reduced healthcare budgets are also leading healthcare managers to look to telemonitoring as a way of doing more for less,' Maddox says.

Although telemonitoring holds much promise, Espicom cautions that there are several issues that are hindering its adoption, including the fact that the technology has not been shown conclusively to improve care or reduce costs and it doesn't yet have broad reimbursement coverage. 'More importantly, it requires healthcare providers to change working practices and realign healthcare budgets, while patients have to want to be actively involved in their healthcare for it to work,' Maddox says.

And, in a last word of advice, Maddox says that "for the industry to capitalise on the growing interest in telemonitoring, there needs to be a focus on gathering clinical data that show the technology is both clinically and cost-effective. This will help to convince healthcare providers of its usefulness and pave the way for reimbursement."