The Rise of Telemedicine in Latin America
Though Latin American medical centers and hospitals have grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, there are still a lot of hills to climb before they reach the top. Many facilities are still lacking in cutting-edge equipment. And when they do have the proper equipment, it is largely located in the hospitals and medical centers in major cities. This leaves a good deal of the rural population in Latin America and the Caribbean—estimated to be 130 million people—without the critical care that they need.
Enter telemedicine, a growing technology that closes the gap between facilities for the patients who need the care the most. In a nutshell, telemedicine allows doctors, often specialists such as cardiologists, oncologists and the like, to examine patients in other facilities remotely. This might involve hospitals in big cities like Mexico City or Buenos Aires partnering with smaller towns around the country. Or hospitals in the U.S. and Europe can also take part in order to help these smaller communities.
[thrive_leads id=’7632′]It’s a novel, cutting-edge idea that’s not only a great partnership for medical facilities, but also a vital tool for the health and well-being of patients.
Many healthcare providers and institutions have caught on to this. As a result, the Latin American telemedicine market’s value is projected to grow with a CAGR of 17.2% between now and 2020 to reach US$2.5 billion—more than double its 2015 value of US$1.13 billion.
The growth of telemedicine is not altogether surprising given that many other high-tech sectors of LatAm healthcare are also expanding, including devices and electronic medical records (EMR).
Taking Advantage of the Telemedicine Boom in LatAm
For manufacturers that provide telemedicine equipment and devices, it’s easy to determine what areas might be interested in your goods and services. Global Health Intelligence provides a rich database of hospitals and other medical centers throughout Latin America that either presently use telemedicine or have the need for telemedicine equipment.
[thrive_leads id=’7635′]And this opportunity is not simply a good one for manufacturers of the equipment. If hospitals in the U.S. or other parts of the world are interested in partnering with a Latin American facility, for example, the GHI database can help with this, as well. Many facilities have telemedicine equipment but are lacking in good partnerships, so this is a great opportunity for North American or European hospitals to get involved.
Finally, once a facility has telemedicine, they may be interested in other high-tech equipment such as PACs (picture archiving and communication systems), PET scanners and other devices to provide their patients with the best care possible. This is yet another sales opportunity for equipment manufacturers.
Explore More
Contact GHI today for a free demo of HospiScope, our Latin American hospitals database, which covers nearly 90% of the region.
A quick tour will let you see how to take advantage of the telemedicine trend to identify a wide array of new prospects among institutions that are likely to need high-tech equipment.
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