Telemedicine is a rapidly growing field in healthcare that leverages technology to provide remote medical care to patients. The global telemedicine market was valued at USD 60.8 billion in 2022 and it is expected to reach USD 225 billion by 2030 growing at a CAGR of 17.9%.
Source: precedenceresearch.com
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of telemedicine. Plus, the trend is not going away anytime soon. GlobalData’s recent survey confirms that 59% of patients confirm that they have intentions of remote interactions with their physicians in the future, either by video call or by the use of applications.
Germany, France, and Norway are among the largest European healthcare markets. They have implemented telemedicine services to varying degrees to improve patient access to healthcare. That’s why we decided to explore the market of telemedicine across these three countries.
Telemedicine in Germany
In Germany, telemedicine is legal and covered by health insurance. Doctors are allowed to diagnose and treat patients remotely, and patients can also receive prescriptions through telemedicine. Telemedicine is regulated by the German Medical Association (Bundesärztekammer) and the Federal Ministry of Health (Bundesministerium für Gesundheit) in Germany.
The use of telemedicine has increased in Germany due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with many patients and healthcare providers turning to virtual consultations and remote monitoring to reduce the risk of infection.
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a reduction in face-to-face consultations, resulting in significant limitations in healthcare. To ensure safe and adequate care, e-health services, such as telemedicine, gained a more prominent role. Many patients and healthcare providers turning to virtual consultations and remote monitoring to reduce the risk of infection.
Government eases restrictions on the use of telemedicine, enabling healthcare professionals to increasingly offer video and telephone consultations.
Also, the EU has this policy to take initiatives to promote interoperability between solutions and facilitate cross-border use. Germany has France as their closest ally in digital healthcare. We’ll elaborate on this in the France chapter.
For now, let’s just note that governments of most European countries are trying to stimulate the development of a vibrant telemedicine market in the EU. The German government funds pilot projects and research on telemedicine technologies.
Despite the growing use of telemedicine in Germany, there are still some challenges to its widespread adoption, such as concerns around data privacy and security, and the need for standardized regulations and reimbursement policies. There is a list of telemedicine startups and companies operating in Germany that could be called leaders of the market. It includes such companies as KRY, Teleclinic, and Fernarzt.
Telemedicine in France
The use of telemedicine has been growing rapidly in France in recent years. In 2020, the number of teleconsultations in France increased by more than 2000% compared to 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the French Ministry of Health, there were 20.7 million teleconsultations in France in 2020. This represented about 16% of all medical consultations in the country.
As for healthcare areas covered by telemedicine, The most common specialties that used telemedicine in France in 2020 were general practitioners (58% of teleconsultations), dermatologists (10%), and psychiatrists (7%).
The French government has been promoting the use of telemedicine in order to improve access to healthcare in rural and remote areas, as well as to reduce healthcare costs. For instance, back in 2018, the French government introduced a reimbursement scheme for teleconsultations. From that time, patients were able to receive reimbursement for teleconsultations with healthcare professionals.
Among the possible challenges for telemedicine in France are usual factors: ensuring the quality and safety of telemedicine services, as well as addressing the issue of unequal access to digital technologies and internet connectivity in some areas. These challenges are universal for all countries, not just France. One of the key challenges in France has been the reimbursement of telemedicine services. To address this, the French government has introduced reimbursement codes for teleconsultations.
The French government has also established a national telemedicine platform, called “MesDocteurs”, which provides patients with access to teleconsultation services from licensed healthcare professionals.
As we can see, the French government is serious about sustaining high-quality services. That’s not all of their efforts. There are projects that join the efforts of European countries in the spheres of digital healthcare. By combining the financial firepower and the technological and scientific abilities of different countries, joint ventures can help create more complete, innovative, and valuable healthcare solutions.
One of the examples of these joint efforts is the Centre of Excellence in Digital Health and Personalised Medicine (CLINNOVA), a joint venture between healthcare actors in Luxemburg, Germany, France, and Denmark.
The ultimate objective of creating a GDPR-compliant European Valley of Data and AI for health. The hospitals in this network would pool their resources in terms of data and analytics to create a French-German-Luxemburgish data platform that offers data in both quality and sufficient quantity.
The end result is to develop AI software that can benefit both the practitioner and the patient, such as diagnostic assistance and prescribing aids.
As this initiative has to comply with GRPR regulations, in the long run, it eases international telemedicine operations once the related software is developed and operating.
Overall, telemedicine has the potential to improve healthcare access and reduce costs in France, but further efforts are needed to ensure its widespread implementation and success.
Telemedicine in Norway
Norway is a pioneer in telemedicine, having implemented various telemedicine initiatives as early as the 1970s. The Norwegian government has allocated substantial funding to support the implementation and development of telemedicine programs. Telemedicine is used extensively in rural and remote areas of Norway where access to healthcare services is limited.
Norway has identified telemedicine, e-health, and welfare technology as national priorities to address the challenges of a rapidly aging population, increasing healthcare costs, and chronic diseases.
Source: bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com
Telemedicine tools are critical for the successful implementation of the Integrated Health Care Reform. The government is introducing electronic patient journals/EPJs and e-prescriptions, as well as a national health portal for citizens to access their digital health information. Telemedicine services are provided through a national telemedicine network that connects hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare providers.
The biggest hospitals in the country (i.e. Oslo University Hospital, St. Olavs Hospital, University Hospital of Northern Norway, Haukeland University Hospital, Akershus University Hospital) are a part of this network.
Telemedicine is viewed as an important aspect of future acute medical care. It includes work-sharing among hospitals for radiology, specialist consultations in dermatology, ear-nose-throat, and cardiography through video conferencing and still picture technology.
Potential Healthcare Markets to Enter in Germany, France, and Norway.
There is a significant potential for new companies to enter digital care markets in the following areas:
- clinical information systems (estimated at USD 115 billion in 2022)
- home care (estimated at USD 362.1 billion in 2022)
- personalized health systems ( estimated at USD 2.12 trillion in 2021)
- services for remote patient monitoring (estimated at 4.4 billion in 2022)
Those are multi-billion markets related to telemedicine and waiting for serious players to enter. It’s hard to estimate the exact share of each segment but when it comes to telemedicine, we have certain numbers. SNS Insider reports that the Telehealth and Telemedicine Market had a value of USD 87.16 billion in 2022. German and French markets are expected to be growing at a CAGR of 32.7% and 24.6% between 2021 and 2025, while Norwegian is at 26.6% in the same time span. All three country markets would be of size of 1+ billion USD markets by 2025 according to multiple research data.
Telemedicine Software Development for Leading European Markets
As we can see, all three markets have some similar traits, such as governmental support, a big popularity increase during COVID-19, and huge potential.
However, certain challenges are also universal: such as difficulties with compliance, data security, and connectivity problems in rural areas. As a software development company that delivered many telemedicine projects to our customers, here’s how we deal with those challenges:
Data Security
Undoubtedly, the most crucial inquiry that healthcare service providers pose to telemedicine app developers pertains to data security. Patients, too, are curious about how the app will safeguard their personal information and ensure its security. To ensure patient data protection, our developers use trusted and proven app development frameworks that employ advanced security architecture for data storage.
Regulatory Compliance
Organizations handling the sensitive personal information of their clients are required to comply with regulatory bodies’ standard security measures and benchmarks.
These regulations, such as the Data Protection Directive 1995/46/EC, the e-Privacy Directive 2002/58/EC, and the IEC 62304 standard in Europe, among others, must be adhered to. To meet these international data security standards, it is imperative to engage a competent and trusted telemedicine app development company.
Our team can implement robust security measures such as multi-factor authentication or biometric identification and high-end encryption protocols to ensure patient data security and prevent any cybersecurity breaches. Telehealth services rely on real-time video calls to deliver care to patients, which can present challenges due to differences in the quality of patient devices and internet connections.
Therefore, it is crucial to consider these factors during the development process to ensure that all app users receive high-quality images and videos with appropriate resolutions, regardless of their device or internet connection.
Scalability
In developing a telemedicine app, consideration should be given to the number of users and the expected rise in demand. The app should support the scaling of its server resources to meet the rise in demand. We put a close eye on it.
Summary
The telemedicine market in Germany, France, and Norway is expanding at an impressive rate. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of telemedicine services, leading to a significant increase in demand for digital health solutions. Europe’s Telemedicine Market share was valued at USD 12.8 billion in 2019 by Graphical research and is expected to witness a 19.1 % CAGR from 2020 to 2026. If we’re speaking about numbers for the countries in question, the German telemedicine market was valued at approximately €460 million in 2020, French is more than twice as big, and Norway is at NOK 2.2 billion (about €220 million).
The three countries have taken proactive measures to improve their healthcare systems and leverage technology to provide better patient care. The adoption of telemedicine services has been driven by factors such as an aging population, an increase in chronic diseases, and a shortage of healthcare professionals. However, the success of telemedicine services in these countries hinges on addressing challenges such as data security, regulatory compliance, and technical infrastructure.
As a leading telemedicine app development company, Elinext is committed to leveraging its expertise and experience to help healthcare providers in Germany, France, Norway, and beyond to build and deploy secure, user-friendly, and innovative telemedicine solutions that can deliver better patient outcomes.
