Welcome
For those of us who have been either following or participating in the evolving world of telemedicine for many years, now is a time for (cautious) celebration. Driven by a remarkable paradigm shift in healthcare management and delivery, telemedicine – once considered a distant possibility – is today experiencing widespread adoption throughout the U.S. and around the world.
According to a 2014 poll of healthcare providers, conducted by the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine Conference, 67% of healthcare professionals (physicians + others) are currently using some form of telemedicine now or are planning to do so in the next few years. That level of acceptance was unheard of until recently. Perceptions are changing, as further evidenced by a finding from a 2015 report sponsored by American Well, a U.S. telehealth services company: 70% of consumers surveyed stated that they'd rather have an online video consultation with a doctor to obtain advice and medication, then travel to a healthcare practitioner's office.
The following articles highlight why, in a market that is bursting with new solutions and technologies, Vidyo continues to lead the way, continually innovating video collaboration technology for telemedicine and driving the adoption of groundbreaking healthcare solutions.
Mark Noble
Vice President of Strategic Marketing
- Cool Vendors in Healthcare Providers, 2015
- Laura Craft | Vi Shaffer | Barry Runyon | Zafar Chaudry | R. Sallam | J. Richardson
- 03 April 2015
- This year's Cool Vendors for healthcare providers showcases vendors that offer solutions to some of healthcare's biggest challenges. We spotlight vendors tackling revenue cycle, clinical surveillance, clinical analytics, nursing and patient engagement with real-time and cloud-based solutions.
Key Findings
- Globally, healthcare is facing extreme transformation. Strategies to lower cost, increase quality and keep populations healthy dominate agendas and drive IT investments.
- It is an era marked by the rapid introduction of new applications and technologies addressing the persistent challenges facing providers, such as optimizing the revenue cycle, managing unprecedented volumes of data, and connecting patients and providers across an expanded continuum of care.
- The market is increasingly being driven by consumer/patient expectations, which can be seen by an uptick in vendors entering this hot, yet blurry, space. We highlight a few in this report.
- Cool Vendors remind CIOs and the market that there is ample opportunity and a healthy need for solutions beyond those provided by the megasuite vendors.
Recommendations
CIOs, CMIOs and IT leaders:
- Look at solutions like QPID to improve patient outcomes and increase clinical satisfaction.
- Partner with CFOs, revenue cycle VPs, and health information management (HIM) professionals to look at tools like Recondo to improve the entire efficiency and effectiveness of the revenue cycle.
- Pay attention to products like Sphere3 when developing the patient-facing IT strategy – it focuses on nursing engagement as a critical cog in the delivery of effective and efficient patient care and patient satisfaction; as well as Telesofia, which reflects a growing market of vendors providing patient educational content to where it is needed in a timely manner.
- Look to VigiLanz as a good example of how an innovative and practical solution to often-urgent and serious medical, healthcare and public health needs will require a very different management paradigm around the electronic instantiation of policies and actions.
Analysis
This research does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
What You Need to Know
Healthcare provider organizations continue to be challenged by the disruption new financial realities have created – increased consumerism and the changing role of the patient; the intensity of competition; and the unprecedented need to be efficient, effective and streamlined across a fluid and dynamic enterprise. The industry is no longer "preparing for" but is in the throes of operating under value-based care models and population health management principles.
Innovation Spotlight
By Mark Noble
From mobile healthcare applications to bedside medical consultations via video collaboration, new telehealth practices and technologies are today allowing patients to access and communicate with healthcare professionals easily and effectively via telemedicine. From all indications, these recent innovations and technological breakthroughs in healthcare delivery, could not have come at a better time.
By Mark Noble
If we're to believe the findings of many recently conducted studies, then telemedicine might finally be coming of age. Not all, but certainly many of the issues that were once barriers to widespread acceptance and adoption of telemedicine applications, have been or will be resolved in the foreseeable future.
Mercy Telehealth Services
Alaska Native Tribal Telehealth Services
