Telemedicine has successfully made a beeline to cardiac care. Gone are the days when only a handful of population was able to get the best line of treatment for heart-related ailments. Telecardiology, by technology, says telecom, IT services, hardware, and software. Telecardiology helps those affected in rural areas as it does in urban areas. In other words, location constraint is no longer a barrier to cardiac monitoring and testing.
On conducting a 12-Lead ECG test even at the local hospital, the telephone line transmits the image in the form of sound signal in RT (real-time). On reaching telecardiology facility, conversion of the same audio signal into image takes place. The heart specialist then intercepts the image and diagnosis is sent over by fax or email. So, it could be inferred that telecardiology equipment rides over the non-availability of cardiologists at the local hospital. This is the unique selling point of telecardiology market.
Telecardiology Market: The Expanse
Another application of telecardiology equipment is that it could be used as a wearable device, wherein it could record the electronic data corresponding to arrhythmias. Therefore, whenever the patient feels something unusual with the heart, he/she could be used for recording the event. The data recorded could then be sent to healthcare provider for proper diagnosis. The telecardiology equipment could also be used for monitoring defibrillator implants and pacemakers remotely. Inherent diseases like congenital heart diseases and cardiac channelopathies are diagnosed by MLPA (Ligation-Dependent Probe Amplification) and NGS (Next Generation Sequencing), which come under cardiovascular genomic diagnostics. They are assimilated in telecardiology, thereby expanding its reach throughout.
The Ongoing Trends
Amongst the ongoing trends regarding telecardiology market are an ever-increasing adoption of CVIS (cardiovascular information system). Also, hospitals are emphasizing on usage or integration of cardiology data like echogram data, ECG, hemodynamics data, and several other laboratory tests with centralized EHR of the patients. CVIS could help with remote access to patients’ data. This factor, along with growing investments in technological advancements like cardiology informatics and mobile solution to cater to advanced cardiac care are expected to take the telecardiology market by storm in the forecast period. Nuclear cardiology has also picked up. It is being mapped onto telecardiology.
Region-wise
North America holds more than 60% of the overall market share. This could be attributed to immediate adoption of advanced technology by the US and Canada. As such, healthcare personnel, through teleconsultation services, do share several real time images related to cardiac tests, thereby facilitating decision-making regarding treatments. Connected cardiology devices play a vital role herein. Along these lines, Europe holds the second position. The Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the fastest rate herein with improvements in healthcare infrastructure. The post-pandemic era is witnessing a greater influx of telecardiology equipment over here.
Competitive Analysis
The key players in the telecardiology market include Agfa-Gevaert, Aerotel Medical Systems, InTouch Technologies, Telemed Solutions, Siemens Healthcare, Polycom, Medtronic, Meddiff Technologies, LifeWatch, Huawei Technologies, Cisco Systems, Cerner, Amercian Well, AMD Global Telemedicine, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, McKesson, Biotronik, and BioTelemetry.
With the AHA (American Hospital Association) stating that close to 76% of the hospitals across the US do connect with consulting practitioners and patients through remote means, the frequency of cardiospecialists partnering with providers of telecardiology equipment is likely to witness a substantiation between 2020 and 2030. In Dec 2020, BioTelemetry, Inc. and Royal Philips signed a merger agreement to expand the base in telemedicine solutions.
