Wireless Tech Trends 2010. Trend: telemedicine

THE LANDSCAPE: As the U.S. population ages and the number of patients with chronic conditions continues to rise, hospitals are beginning to leverage remote technology to improve care post-discharge and cut down on avoidable hospital readmissions. In addition, rural areas with increasingly limited access to specialists are using telemedicine to provide care without transporting patients from small, critical care hospitals into the larger cities.

As healthcare reform begins to change the payment structure, episode of care reimbursement will provide the push for hospitals to increase their chronic care management programs. The cost of technology for in-home monitoring is rapidly dropping, and patients will begin to play a greater role in managing their own care. In addition, Washington's pledge to increase the national network infrastructure means that rural areas will have better, faster connections to link specialty services to the cities, and the use of telemedicine for specialty services like telepsychiatry, telestroke and wound care may rise.