Telemedicine – Future

It’s easy to make predictions for the future of telemedicine.  The difficult part is putting a time frame on the predictions.  Here is a list of what I expect to see happen in the not so distant future.

1. The term telemedicine disappears. Telemedicine just becomes a regular part of medical care.

2. Services become integrated (telemedicine/remote patient monitoring/apps/education

3. Issues of reimbursement and regulation remain, but become less significant factors.

4. Telemedicine becomes cost justified as positive outcomes justify deployment.

5. Widespread use of mobile devices becomes the primary entry point for many patients.

6. The primary provider of telemedicine services will be the same companies who now offer electronic medical records.

7. There will be increased acceptance of telemedicine as a standard of care

8. International boundaries become less significant.

9. Virtual Medial Centers will exist to cover a variety of illnesses and conditions.

10. The American Telemedicine Association gets acquired by HIMSS.

11. Telemedicine becomes an integrated tool in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning, personalized medicine and population health management.

12. Companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft become major players and possible exit strategies for companies continuing to develop new technologies.