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Telemedicine

Telemedicine Agency Consulting firm Experts Specialists Consultancy

The Alcimed Healthcare team has been exploring for its clients the subject of Virtual Health Care and in particular telemedicine, which has become increasingly important in health care practices since the Covid-19 epidemic.

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    The challenges related to telemedicine and virtual care

    More and more telemedicine offers are available and cover a range of services intended for both patients and healthcare providers, from online appointment booking, calendar management, teleadvice, teleconsultation, e-prescription, and even the e-delivery of medicines.

    Telemedicine addresses two main objectives. The first, driven by teleconsultation and tele-expertise, aims to allow isolated or dependent people to have access to a traditional consultation or to benefit from the opinion of a specialist, remotely. The second, driven particularly by remote monitoring, aims to improve the care pathway and relieve hospital overcrowding by enabling early detection of clinical signs synonymous with hospitalization or re-hospitalization.

    Although telemedicine has been increasingly adopted by certain patient populations since the Covid-19 pandemic, its development into routine practice is still in its infancy and faces many organizational (cost and reimbursement, legal liability, privacy protection, data security), human (in particular the willingness of patients or medical staff to use these services) and technical (qualification of medical staff, interoperability of systems, data rate communication, etc.) challenges.

    In this context, there are many challenges for healthcare actors to get these new practices off the ground, including:

    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?

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      How we support you in your projects related to telemedicine and virtual care

      Alcimed has been supporting its clients for many years in their projects related to telemedicine and virtual care. We work in particular with pharmaceutical leaders, medical device manufacturers, public institutions (ARS, SATT, etc.) as well as with virtual care pure players, start-ups and innovative SMEs.

      The diversity of our clients, the geographic fields we explore, and the types of projects we develop give us a global and in-depth understanding of the challenges related to telemedicine.

      Our projects cover topics as diverse as:

      • Exploring new technologies,
      • Studying regulatory frameworks,
      • Searching for partners,
      • Analyzing and optimizing patient pathways,
      • Analyzing the evolution of medical practices and the receptivity of healthcare providers,
      • Defining market access strategies,
      • Developing value proposition,
      • Evaluating business cases demonstrating the value generated for our clients and the actors with whom they interact.

      Examples of recent projects carried out for our clients in telemedicine

      • Evaluation of opportunities and search for partners in the field of teletherapy

        We supported one of our clients, a leading industrial player in healthcare, in the evaluation of a strategic opportunity in the speech disorders market.

        To do this, our team carried out a literature review and targeted interviews to identify the players, understand and evaluate the teletherapy market for speech and language disorders. We interviewed potential partners to understand their solutions, current business models and consider partnering with our client.

        Ultimately, our client was able to short-list partners, meet them and conclude an agreement with one of them.

      • Market study for a digital remote monitoring solution for outpatients following surgery

        Alcimed provided support to a start-up offering eHealth remote monitoring services for outpatients following surgery.

        Interacting with hospital sector stakeholders (general management, financial management, IT management, heads of department, etc.) enabled us to assess how this solution was received, its market potential and also the means of acquisition and the services most expected by potential buyers.

        Our recommendation enabled us to fine-tune the positioning of the solution and highlighted a series of key success factors, particularly in terms of partnerships and technical specificities.

      • Development of a business case for a telemedicine project for a pharmaceutical laboratory in women's health

        While telemedicine is a rapidly developing channel of access to care in e-health, it is also a potential means for the industry to implement complementary services for professionals and patients.

        Alcimed supported an international pharmaceutical company in building a business case in women’s health, highlighting how services based on teleconsultation platforms could create value.

        The project concluded with the implementation of three pilot programs with start-ups in the sector in France, Germany and Russia.

      • Evaluation of the market potential and design of a connected fertility remote monitoring bracelet

        Correctly identifying fertile periods is an important issue for women. We helped one of our clients, a leader in the field of contraception, to develop a new remote monitoring offer, based on a connected fertility bracelet.

        In order to assess the value of such a device and to establish recommendations as to its design, we analyzed the feedback from testers in 5 European countries and more broadly explored the question of uses and user experience.

        Our project resulted in the evaluation of market potential as well as a finer segmentation of potential consumers.

      • Definition of the different operating models existing in the field of telemedicine to help define the positioning of an agri-food player in Dysphagia

        An agri-food player wanted to explore the various operational models for telemedicine in dysphagia, and to identify the most relevant ones for its activity. The purpose of our project was to understand the telemedicine landscape in dysphagia and how they could become involved within it.

        The methodology of our project included a characterization of potential telemedicine operating models in dysphagia via a thorough analysis to understand the key stakeholders, main service streams, financial flows, and the inherent values of these models.

        The results of this exploration provided our client with a clear understanding of the telemedicine landscape as well as key insights on the role that our client could potentially play in these models.

      • Exploration of the future of telemedicine in veterinary care for a healthcare player

        One of our clients, a leading healthcare player, wanted to explore the future of telemedicine in veterinary care. The main objective of our project was to understand the drivers and potential challenges by drawing parallels between human and veterinary healthcare.

        First, we defined the differences and similarities between veterinary and human healthcare to identify potential opportunities and obstacles for telemedicine. Next, our team investigated and built an overview of human telemedicine in selected markets, focusing on its evolution, drivers and challenges. A workshop was then held with our client teams to create initial scenarios on how telemedicine could be integrated into veterinary care. We also developed a SWOT analysis of these scenarios to see the potential impact of telemedicine on our client’s operations.

        Finally, our project provided our client with valuable insights into the evolution of telemedicine, its drivers and challenges, and our team drafted recommendations to our client on the best ways to apply telemedicine in the veterinary field.

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        To go further

        Founded in 1993, Alcimed is an innovation and new business consulting firm, specializing in innovation driven sectors: life sciences (healthcare, biotech, agrifood), energy, environment, mobility, chemicals, materials, cosmetics, aeronautics, space and defence.

        Our purpose? Helping both private and public decision-makers explore and develop their uncharted territories: new technologies, new offers, new geographies, possible futures, and new ways to innovate.

        Located across eight offices around the world (France, Europe, Singapore and the United States), our team is made up of 220 highly-qualified, multicultural and passionate explorers, with a blended science/technology and business culture.

        Our dream? To build a team of 1,000 explorers, to design tomorrow’s world hand in hand with our clients.

        Virtual care covers all the ways of interacting with, supporting and treating patients remotely. Along with digital therapies and health applications, telemedicine is one of the major pillars of virtual care and is notably available in the form of teleconsultation and telemonitoring, through telecommunications technologies.

        In 2023, the global telehealth market was estimated between $95 and $102 billion, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of ranging from +17% to +25% between 2024 and 2030. The reasons for this growth are an increasing need for remote healthcare services, notably due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a significant increase in virtual consultations and remote patient monitoring.