Chronic disease, elderly patients to fuel growth of home health technologies market

Increased use of remote medical consultations to improve healthcare for chronic disease and elderly patients, particularly as cost models shift in the industry, will fuel steady growth of the global home health technologies market, according to a new report.

Efforts in the U.S., in particular, will boost the market, which will grow from $3.4 billion in 2014 to $13.7 billion by 2020, according to Tractica's latest report, "Home Health Technologies." The number of consumers taking advantage of such tools will increase more than five-fold, from 14.3 million in 2014 to 78.5 million by 2020.

"Many of the application segments within the broader home health technologies market are complementary, and are being combined to enable strong return on investment, in addition to allowing the patient to be a more active participant in their healthcare," says Tractica Principal Analyst Charul Vyas in a statement; he adds that providers are seeing "strong results" from the use of such tools.

The report's authors note that because the landscape for such tools is still developing, adoption and use challenges remain. Interoperability issues also must be a priority as use of the technology becomes more ubiquitous, they say.

Industry growth this year has been particularly noticeable, thanks in part to the success of companies like Teladoc, for which an initial public offering in late June raised $157 million. While the company reported a loss of about $17.1 million just prior to the IPO, CEO Jason Gorevic seemed buoyed by the strong performance of his company during its first quarter as a public company; revenue during Q2 grew 78 percent to 18.3 million.

Employers in the U.S. are taking notice of the growth; a survey published earlier this month by the National Business Group on Health found that roughly 74 percent of employers nationwide plan to offer telehealth to its employees in 2016. The survey also noted, however, that of the companies that currently offer telehealth services, only 12 percent of employees are taking advantage of such programs.

To learn more:
- here's the study (registration required)
- read the announcement