Telemedicine

The definition of virtual care and telemedicine in the technical or regulatory sense may vary according to the stakeholders concerned or the countries investigated. It is then difficult but necessary to understand the practical variations in each context, the level of proof expected by the healthcare authorities or even the regulatory dimensions necessary for their approval.

What are the current telemedicine practices in a given geographical area? What are the expected developments in this market? What are the applicable regulations?

As with many digital developments, education is a key element in facilitating the adoption of telemedicine. This educational approach must involve both key interlocutors of the teleconsultation: doctors must be supported, encouraged and trained and patients must be informed of the presence of, for example, teleconsultation in their care pathway.

How to work with communities of doctors to promote the use of telemedicine? How to address this change in culture among medical staff, especially older doctors, and patients? How to optimize a care pathway using virtual care tools?

When we compare the maps of medical deserts and digital deserts, we often see that they overlap. The populations most in need of access to care are also the most disadvantaged in terms of telecommunications. Also, the most demanding acts in terms of throughput, such as sending medical images for example, can be limited, either because the throughput is too low, or because it is unreliable (only one operator, frequent power cuts…). Telemedicine is thus generally hampered by poor network coverage.

What role can healthcare industrial players play to promote the connectivity of medical deserts? Are space telecommunications the solution to this problem of terrestrial telecommunications?

Telemedicine acts entail the intervention of several actors (supplier of the technical solution, medical staff in town or at the hospital, insurers, local or national healthcare organizations, etc.) and therefore often require coordination or the establishment of partnerships between all the actors on financing models and the remuneration of each.

How to align healthcare providers, insurers, employers, clinics, hospitals, public authorities, solution providers, to promote the acceleration of telemedicine? What partnership model should be put in place? What business models to develop?

Another major challenge is the management and use of data gathered over the course of patient pathways. Large amounts of data from patient files are gathered by various stakeholders regarding patients and the evolution of their diseases (age at diagnosis, type of screening, side effects, disease progression, etc.) and could provide for cross-analyses aimed at innovating and improving care pathways.

Today, well beyond ethical debates, a large amount of data is underused and remains compartmentalized. In France, for example, initiatives such as the Health Data Hub – a platform for centralizing data from various organizations – has emerged and paves the way for new projects with varied perspectives: fundamental research, drug development, monitoring of their real-life uses, and optimization of care pathways (prevention, hospital care management and patient monitoring).

What is the current regulatory framework? What data can be shared between those involved throughout the care pathway? How is this data collected and used to improve care pathways?