Telemedicine Market Size to Reach Over $45 billion by 2018

Driven by the advantage of enabling reducing negative effect brought by distance on healthcare, as well as development of portable medical devices, telemedicine is increasingly gaining traction with compound annual growth rate expecting to reach 17%, according to market researcher Databeans.

Sudden illness happens on many people, I think. This case usually generates great trouble and risk to patients, especially for those living far from hospitals. And in developing countries and undeveloped regions, this part of population base is large, posting great market potential for medical telemetry.

Other driving forces include government support and hospital investment. For instance, The Lexington Medical Center recently installed a cardiac telemetry monitoring system throughout the entire hospital. The system enables to constantly monitor the health of patients with arrhythmia, chest pain, heart failure, or risk of cardiac diseases.

When deepening in, of course, we will find related equipment and semiconductor can also find wide applications, including power management, RF, and processing markets. Currently, major semiconductor players encompass Texas Instruments, Bosch Healthcare, Honeywell, and Cardiocom as well as Philips Healthcare and Siemens Healthcare.

In fact, Databeans noted, in addition to direct semiconductor maker, semiconductor companies are entering this blue sea through partnership. For example, Zarlink Semiconductor made a supply agreement with Medtronic Inc; Intel Corporation and General Electric forms cooperation as well.