OCTOBER 30 PRESS RELEASE
Telemedicine Service Trends Suggest Continued Growth
Jacksonville, OR (October 30, 1998): According to information presented at TeleMed IV this week, telemedicine products and services demonstrated substantial growth in 1998. This trend has been forecast in several published market research reports, even though estimates of total telemedicine revenue levels vary considerably (depending upon the type of segmentation used for analysis).
The TeleMed IV conference was produced by Advanstar Communications (http://abctelcon.com) and held in Anaheim, California, from October 26th - 28th, 1998. The "Executive Policy Leadership Summit" covered activities of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA; www.atmeda.org) and the Rural Health Care Corporation (RHCC; www.rhccfund.org). Several talks also discussed confidentiality, licensure, malpractice, privacy, and reimbursement issues.
The range of future telemedicine applications is exciting. Among the "leading fringe" developments at the Institute for International Informatics (San Diego, CA) and Mindtel (Syracuse, NY) are low-cost solutions which help physically-impaired individuals communicate via computers or the Internet. At East Carolina University’s Telemedicine Technologies Company (www.telemedtech.com), "telemedicine suites" are being designed to combine a variety of tools in a setting that resembles a pilot’s cockpit or a space shuttle control center.
In the meantime, patients and physicians are more involved than ever in the delivery of health care using telemedicine. The number of total teleconsultations doubled in 1998, according to data collected in an annual survey conducted by the Association of Telemedicine Service Providers (ATSP; www.atsp.org).
As a market analysis and consulting company, Feedback Research Services publishes reports about telemedicine, telephone triage/medical call centers, and patient-centric management strategies. The most recently-published study evaluates the market for diabetes care, including the role of emerging telehealth components.
Feedback Research Services publishes reports that analyze emergent health care markets. For information about current titles, visit: Market Reports
