Medical research firm InMedica has released a new whitepaper detailing the increased growth and adoption in telemedicine — an industry that’s forecast to produce more than 990M in revenues by 2015.
The whitepaper, entitled “Competitive Dynamics in the World Telehealth Market – 2011 to 2020,” looks at the telehealth market over the next 10 years and covers what it calls the “major parts of the ecosystem,” which include peripheral device suppliers – blood pressure monitors, glucose meters etc; gateway suppliers – health hubs and mobile gateways; and data transmission service providers – POTS, cellular and broadband.
The largest takeaway from the report is that as the industry grows, we’ll begin to see heavy competition in terms of new technology providers, which should drive down costs and increase the overall ease of access and adoption for physicians and healthcare organizations. “At the moment, suppliers in different segments of the ecosystem are effectively collaborating. However, as the market undergoes greater convergence, it is likely that direct competition between suppliers will increase”, explained Theo Ahadome, Market Analyst at InMedica.
A good example of this is the relationship between gateway and peripherals suppliers. As fixed gateway suppliers increase their subscriber numbers, they’re projected to increasingly compete in the peripheral device market by supplying their own blood pressure monitors, weight scales and other peripherals. This allows them to control device interconnectivity and adds an additional revenue stream.
“The important issue in the telehealth competitive landscape is that telehealth is not a device or product- it is a system. It is hence inherent that devices can be seemlessy integrated, in order for the system to operate successfully. Standards will be crucial and alliances such Continua Health, Bluetooth SIG and the ANT Alliance will be important in this respect. However, we also know that where collaboration is paramount, there is also a market for vertical integration, leading to direct competition between previous partners” continued Ahadome.
The whitepaper is free to download and can be found here.