Virtual care is the next growth opportunity across the healthcare space and can expect to grow in the US by over 40 per cent a year for the next five years, according to analysis from Frost & Sullivan.
The consultancy says requirements to ensure social distancing have transformed virtual care from an essential innovation to a must-have model. Although at a nascent stage, the United States’ virtual care market is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.4 per cent.
A report from the consultancy predicts expanded ways to utilise patient-generated health data. This new volume of valuable data will be accompanied by advances in data analytics, new solutions for clinical decision support, and the evolving use case for population health management (PHM).
It also anticipates the use of technology to manage the increasing prevalence of behavioural health issues that have been reported since the onset of the global pandemic: It says virtual care’s benefits are visible as beleaguered mental health professionals seek to remotely manage pandemic-related spikes in conditions such as depression, stress, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicidal thoughts.
The report argues for the development of a virtual care implementation strategy defining the program and benefits offered. It argues healthcare providers of virtual care solutions must revitalize their infrastructure to manage the supply chain and logistics for their customers with 24/7 support to enable a complete and rewarding virtual care experience.
Victor Camlek, healthcare & life sciences research manager at Frost & Sullivan said: “The largest component of the virtual care market involves the use of telehealth and telemedicine. However, the concept of virtual care presents opportunities that extend beyond telehealth and telemedicine and can improve the management of patients across all healthcare segments.
“Virtual care platforms can provide an improved level of efficiency in workflow processes such as test scheduling, results notification, and follow-up patient care management that will be required in the next generation of healthcare well beyond the pandemic.
“This view of full-scale virtual care offers the ability to manage the clinical and operational processes that include electronic health records (EHRs), healthcare workflow, patient relationship management, and many basic functions such as billing and scheduling. Further, it provides a strong return on investment (ROI) for providers and patients based on its ability to save time and utilise artificial intelligence (AI) to enable innovative systems far beyond the simple functions that can be applied today.”