Telemedicine Adoption Rate Increases

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

According to HIMSS Analytics, more providers are adopting telemedicine in 2015 than in previous years.

From 2014 to 2015, the number of providers using telemedicine technology rose slightly, bringing the number of providers using telemedicine from 54.5 percent to 57.7 percent. According to a HIMSS Analytics study, the last year has brought not only an increase in adoption but also growth in familiarity with telemedicine products and services.

“One of the bigger things we found was not only the increase in adoption of these telemedicine services and solutions year-over-year, but also from my perspective the familiarity of these solutions; there are fewer people who are unsure about whether they use these types of solutions,” Brendan FitzGerald, HIMSS Analytics Research Director, told FierceHealthIT in an interview.

iHealth Beat reports HIMSS used data from a survey of nearly 300 health professionals including:

• ambulatory physicians
• C-suite executives
• clinicians
• department heads
• IT professionals

“There was a somewhat sizeable uptick in organizations wanting the ability to offer care services that they don't necessarily have, such as being able to offer specialty services. That was top of mind moving forward,” said FitzGerald. “Future goals for the technology ... they want to develop a service that really tries to increase access and integrates healthcare across rural areas.”

The most widely used technology for telemedicine was a two-way web or video camera. Seventy percent of those who currently have telemedicine solutions reported using this to communicate with patients. Vendors of telemedicine technology are increasing as well — there has been a jump from 69 of them to 85 in the last year.

“It's the biggest jump we've seen since 2012-2013,” he said. “The telemedicine market itself is rapidly evolving, new technologies are coming on and the vendors catering to this particular space are increasing.”