Prevalence Of Telemedicine, October 2014 [CHART]

Many healthcare stakeholders see a variety of virtual care—sometimes known as remote care—models as an important way to reduce healthcare costs and improve efficiency, according to a new eMarketer report, “Connected Health: More than Just Wearables: What Marketers Need to Know About Digitally Enabled Care.”

Virtual care is a subset of telemedicine, a broad concept that the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) says is “the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status.” It also includes “a growing variety of applications and services using two-way video, email, smartphones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunications technology.”

In an August 2014 study by HIMSS, 46% of more than 400 hospitals and medical practices said they used at least one type of telemedicine, most often videoconferencing. Read the rest at eMarketer.