Telehealth Boom Could Create $175 Billion Opportunity by 2026

With the coronavirus making its rounds, telemedicine is under big demand.

All as government and health officials advise against face to face meetings.  It’s becoming so popular Global Market Insights estimates the market could be worth $175 billion by 2026.

Markets and Markets estimates telehealth could grow from $25.4 billion in 2020 to more than $55.6 billion in 2025.  While estimates vary, one thing is for certain. “Virtual care has moved to center stage and I would say it’s taken an irreversible leap forward,” said Teladoc Chief Executive Jason Gorevic.

In addition, analysts at Forrester say virtual care visits could soar to one billion this year.  “Forrester also expects time and resource constraints to create a supply crisis for virtual care during the pandemic, especially as only 24 percent of US healthcare organizations (HCOs) had an existing virtual care program as of January 2020.”

In fact, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also gave a big boost to telehealth.

n fact, he just announced the government would spend more than $240 million for online mental health care and medical services.  “If we can use apps to order dinner and video chats to stay in touch with family – we can use new technology to keep each other healthy,” Trudeau said, as quoted by CTV News.

This comes just weeks after President Trump’s telehealth announcement.

“My emergency declaration allowed us to waive regulations to give nurses and doctors maximum flexibility to respond to the virus and to protect our frontline professionals that we’ve authorized through telehealth nationwide, which is really becoming big stuff — telehealth.  It makes it a lot easier for patients, and it really has been working out amazingly well,” said President Trump, as quoted by the White House.