The way forward for telemedicine in health care delivery

Telemedicine has shown substantial growth recently both in terms of financial volume and numbers of people served. It also holds promise for even more growth in the future, driven by both epidemiological conditions and technological advancements. The spread of the mobile telephone into the remotest parts of developing countries, combined with its multiple applications in health and mobile financial services will extend telemedicine to vast swathes of the world's populations. However, some challenges, primarily in dealing with the regulatory environment, will need to be overcome for this potential to be fully realized.