WCA November 2014

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2014
From the Americas
‘Telemedicine’
The telecommunications industry
undergirds a trend in health care
that promises an annual $5 billion
savings worldwide
“With an ageing Baby Boomer population and broadband
bandwidth improved a hundredfold from a decade ago,
telemedicine is exploding as a convenient and less costly
alternative to the traditional visit to the doctor’s office.”
Lucas Mearian of Computerworld used the word ‘exploding’
advisedly. According to research he cited from the global
consultancy Deloitte, of 600 million appointments with
general practitioners in the USA and Canada in 2014,
some 75 million will involve electronic visits, or eVisits.
(“Almost One in Six Doctor Visits Will Be Virtual This Year,”
8th August)
Worldwide, Deloitte places the overall cost of in-person
primary physician visits at $175 billion. With the number
of eVisits climbing to 100 million this year, the potential
global savings is $5 billion when compared to the cost of
in-person doctor visits. The eVisit projection in Deloitte’s
study represents growth of 400 per cent from 2012 levels.
As an example of what this means for the future of patient
medicine, Mr Mearian selected the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center (UPMC), which last November revamped
its patient portal, renaming it MyUPMC and rolling out
AnywhereCare. This service offers patients throughout
Pennsylvania eVisits with doctors 24 hours a day, seven
days a week.
The $11 billion health care provider and insurer, with
21 hospitals and more than 400 outpatient sites, says its
AnywhereCare service has an 80 per cent satisfaction
rating. Patients love the convenience and speed of remote
care, Natasa Sokolovich, the UPMC executive director of
telemedicine, told Mr Mearian, who covers consumerisation
of IT for Computerworld.
“The new model provides a faster turnaround,”
Ms Sokolovich said. “Within 30 minutes [patients] have
the ability to get access to a healthcare provider.” Through
electronic record portals, eVisits can also offer physician
and patient a view of the same information on medical
history, test results, prescriptions and appointments.
In addition to telephone consultation, telemedicine –
eVisiting – utilises electronic document exchanges, email
or texting, and video conferencing. While not all in-person
primary physician consults can be handled by eVisits, even
a rate of 30 to 40 per cent implies a $50 to $60 billion total
‘addressable market,’ according to Deloitte.
 eVisit usage will likely be greatest in North
America, where it will soon represent 25 per cent
of patient-physician ‘meetings.’ Again according to
Deloitte, in the USA in 2010 there were 1.2 billion patient
visits to physician offices, emergency departments, and
hospitals (for outpatient services) – the equivalent of
3.3 visits per American citizen.
A notable stimulus to telecom-based health care is the
Affordable Care Act, hard-fought and won by President
Barack Obama over virtually united conservative
opposition in Congress.
Now enacted and an apparent success, ‘Obamacare’
places emphasis on decreasing the cost of health care
while increasing quality through standardised methods.
“Technology is going to be the game changer there,”
David Collins, the senior director of the mobile community
of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems
Society (HIMSS), told Computerworld .
Implied was a salute – and a challenge – to the
telecommunications sector.
Of related interest . . .
 The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on
5th August proposed changing its method of evaluating
high-speed Internet to require download speeds
of 10 megabits per second (Mbps) or higher for a
service to qualify as broadband. The agency currently
defines broadband, or high-speed Internet, as 4 Mbps
download speed and 1 Mbps upload speed.
The suggested 10 Mbps download bandwidth
benchmark could, by FCC estimate, support moderate
but not high Internet usage by a household of three.
In its most recent Broadband Progress Report, in 2012,
the FCC found six per cent of the US households
lacking access to fixed broadband service.
In rural areas, that group comprised one-fourth of the
population. A stricter definition of broadband could
mean that even fewer Americans would be deemed to
have access.
Automotive
Having overcome scepticism about
its long-distance capability, the Tesla
Model S electric car draws criticism
of another kind
While positive overall, the most recent Consumer Reports
assessment of the Tesla Model S stood in marked contrast
to a November 2012 review by the same publication
declaring the luxury sedan (sticker price: nearly $89,650) to
be the ‘electric car that shatters every myth.’
“Tesla Model S has more than its share of problems,” read
the headline of the review, posted online on 11th August.
For the second time in a month, a top critic had published a
harsh critique of the Palo Alto, California-based carmaker’s
flagship vehicle.
As noted by Alexander C Kaufman of Huffington Post, a
review published in late July by the car-critic site Edmunds
was echoed by Consumer Reports, which complained
BigStockPhoto.com Photographer: Aispl