Telemedicine is an extension of that stethoscope. So far, there are no reliable numbers on how extensively telemedicine is being used. Linkous says it is used in so many different ways and in so many different settings, it's hard to keep track. That number has been projected by several analysts to double in size within the next couple of years, Linkous says. Obviously, telemedicine is growing like gangbusters, but it's still relatively small in the world of markets within medicine, even though we've had some significant growth in the last two years.
Prisons are perhaps the most common sites for remote telemedicine applications.
There, telemedicine can significantly reduce the time and the costs of patient transportation, and reduce any risk to the physicians caring for the incarcerated population. Currently, prison officials in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Virginia are using telemedicine to provide care for their prison populations. But other types of telemedicine applications are catching on quickly, Linkous says. Home health nurses are hooking into live telemedicine units in patients' homes, thereby saving themselves travel time and allowing for greater caseloads. This is not necessarily a substitute for having someone in the home, but it helps.