SECTOR SERVICES

ON THE PULSE HEALTHCARE

Operators are set to play a key role in healthcare services in future, with some already developing signifi cant strategies over fi xed and mobile infrastructure. By Joanne Taaffe

can make provisioning healthcare more effective and more efficient. Operators are set to play a key role in how such serv- ices are deployed, but many are still putting in place strategies and business models despite some early initiatives. Increasingly, governments are looking

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to cut costs by providing more healthcare services—Internet- and mobile-based— to patients in their homes rather than hospitals. As a result telemedicine— which the World Health Organization broadly defines as the use of ICT for health service delivery—including remote patient monitoring , digital health records and information and education services, promises to create new business opportunities for telcos. “It’s one of the last sectors to transform

[its ICT infrastructure] and operators will play a large role,” says Lyse Brillouet, director of strategy and marketing at Orange Health, set up in 2007. In addition to Orange, Telefonica is

one of the most aggressive operators in the healthcare space to date. Last July the Spanish operator set up a healthcare divi- sion separate from its communications business to deliver O2- and Telefonica- branded services to healthcare providers in Europe and Latin America. “We don’t view O2 Health as a comms business. We’re a health services business…[and] I’m not [necessarily] doing it on [O2’s] comms,” says Keith Nurcombe, global director of healthcare at Telefonica, and a former executive at GlaxoSmithKline. Telefonica will develop and sell health-

care services such as mobile alerts to remind patients of upcoming appoint- ments; remote monitoring of chronic diseases; digital pens that enable health- care workers to update patient records remotely; and consultation services over video-conferencing technology. Telefonica will focus on selling its

May 2011 www.totaltele.com

his month European policy- makers will meet at eHealth Week to share ideas on how ICT

services directly to healthcare providers, and Nurcombe claims O2’s market research shows its brand is trusted enough in the UK to enable it to take the leap into providing remote health services. Yet analysts warn operators may find it such services directly to

hard to sell

consumers. “Going direct to consumers is tricky. They’re more influenced by doctors,” says Lynne Dunbrack , program director, Connected Health IT, referring to the US market. Nevertheless, the US is seen by some analysts as likely to be at the forefront of, for example, wireless health services. In-Stat forecasts US healthcare wireless data spending will exceed US$4.5 billion by 2014, driven by authorities coordinating care, informa- tion and billing services. Orange, in contrast, is setting itself up

as a pure communications provider, part- nering with IT companies to provide new ICT applications services to hospitals and doctors. “These are our customers; we partner with half of [France’s] hospitals,” says Brillouet. “It’s important to follow [their requirements] and build a vision for them. Orange is…a technological partner. We have doctors and nurses in our team, but we’re not medical players.” Yet telcos do hold some strong cards.

“Telcos…have full ownership of wireless and wireline networks and really provide quality of service,” says Irene Berlinsky, senior research analyst, multiplay serv- ices, at IDC. “They are in a position to bring [on board] multiple partners.”

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

n Implemented (2009) n Implemented (2013)

Indeed, operators already have in place

technology and partnerships, such as with telepresence, that can transfer to telemedicine services, points out Berlinsky. Certainly, operators see part- nering as key to their success. “There’s not much sense in going it alone. It’s not just networks,” says Orange’s Brillouet. Telcos can also draw on their experi-

ence of providing network infrastructure to other industry sectors such as banking , which transformed customer service distribution with the introduction of ATM machines. “Healthcare has some similarities to other industries, such as finance,” says Berlinsky. But the need to partner can also cause

problems in terms of time to market and diluting revenues. “The returns are very, very slow as it takes time to establish rela- tionships,” says Jayashree Rajagopal, a research associate at Frost & Sullivan. Mobile services will play a key role in

future as smartphones become more widespread and cheaper. Pyramid Research says more than 200 million mobile health applications are already in use worldwide today, and forecasts that will increase threefold by 2012. Meanwhile Research2Guidance estimates that 500 million of a total 1.4 billion smartphone users globally will be using m-health applications by 2015. It says 43% of m-health applications are primarily designed for healthcare professionals, including Continued Medical Education (CME), remote monitoring and health-

Telemedicine policy implementation by WHO regions

Africa

Eastern Mediterranean

Europe

Americas

SE Asia Western Pacifi c

Global Source: WHO 17