Telehealth has revolutionized healthcare by increasing access to enhanced quality services for patients from various backgrounds and allowing healthcare facilities to thrive through the collaboration of tele-healthcare providers. Figure A demonstrates the rapid adoption of telehealth services from 2010-2016 alone. As telehealth services continue to grow in demand, it is crucial to identify an effective business model to establish a sustaining delivery of healthcare that prioritizes patient welfare and significantly improves patient outcomes. Buisness Models must also implement plans that are willing to expand with the growing population of telehealth beneficiaries.The Business Model Canvas, VISOR, NRTC, and ATP models and five financially strategic components adopted by several telehealth business models were selected to represent the general components that several telehealth companies address to operate an efficient and sustaining company. Strategies adopted from these business models inclue:
1) Assessing a value from implementing a telehealth business (Buisness Canvas Model)
2) Analyzing strengths and weaknesses of a currently implemented business plan (VISOR)
3) Considering how a business will finance all areas involved in supporting a telehealth company (ATP)
4) Creating a detailed, specific, and flexible plan that can achieve buy-in from supporting organizations and consumers (NRTC)
5) Determining major sources of revenue for a telehealth company (five financial strategies adopted from various telehealth programs).
Although all strategies analyzed on this website have proven to be successful for individual telehealth companies, they tend to lack detail that counterpart telehealth programs have included. A business model that incorporated several components from these currently established models would be far more effective for operating a telehealth business.
Further research must be conducted to analyze business models of additional long-standing telehealth networks to identify business components that contribute to a successful telehealth operation. Research should also include detailed financial and patient outcomes from various telehealth businesses to assess which business models are validated as having the most success with the service it provides and population it serves. This information may potentially be synthesized into a more universal and/or personalized telehealth model; creating a more effecient approach to supporting telehealth businesses and ultimately benefiting the deliverers and beneficiaries of telehealth services.
Figure A: Telehealth Market Growth. Adapted from Visually, by Avitabile, D., Retrieved from
https://visual.ly/community/infographic/business/telemedicine-market-growth-2010-2019