Is This (Finally) Telemedicine’s Moment?
Source: Yahoo Finance
The Signal: Telemedicine — the practice of remote care via video, calls, texts, email etc. — has been hyped for years and seen billions of investment dollars. But as recently as 2017, fewer than 20% of consumers used it. The coronavirus outbreak is likely the catalyst that pushes telemedicine into the mainstream for good.
In China, leading telemedicine apps have seen widespread adoption since the start of the year. Ping An Good Doctor, which touts its “mobile health + AI technology” online healthcare ecosystem, increased new users by 9x as news of coronavirus circulated through China in December and January.
In America, Teladoc — a US-based firm that provides telehealth and virtual care — has seen a 50% YoY surge in use while its stock price has nearly doubled year-to-date.
During the current health crisis, Teladoc is activating thousands of doctors onto its platform, operating virtual COVID-19 clinics (to assess initial patient symptoms and determine if further testing is needed) and installing its hardware directly in hospitals and clinics.
Last week, the firm’s CEO told CNBC that “demand has shifted forever in virtual care.”
A number of factors are contributing to this shift:
- Patient Awareness: Amid vast quarantines and social distancing measures, patients are more willing (and often have no choice) but to try telemedicine options. Virtual care allows patients to be diagnosed from the safety of their homes and allows doctors to serve larger geographic areas.
- Reimbursement: In the US, rules around telemedicine reimbursement have been quite restrictive. However, the federal government’s recent $8.3B funding bill to combat coronavirus allows the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “suspend rules that restrict access to remote care” for Medicare patients. Moving forward, reimbursement for a wider expanse of telemedicine services will be a boon for the industry as patients know they will be covered and doctors can receive comparable payment as an in-person visit.
- Doctor Liquidity: Typically, telemedicine providers have to be licensed in every state that they want to practice in. In response to the current crisis, “many governors have relaxed licensure requirements related to physicians licensed in another state and retired or clinically inactive physicians,” according to this guide from the American Medical Association (AMA). If these relaxed guidelines stay in place, the supply of telemedicine services can rapidly expand across the country.
Available exclusively to Trends subscribers
Understand upcoming market trends, receive our premium weekly report, access our database of research, and network with the smartest people we know
7 Day Trial
Join Trends now for $1!
Already a member? Log In.
Hear from our members:

Gagan Biyani
Co-Founder / Udemy

Adrian Salamunovic
Founder / Author of "Free PR"

Jack Smith
Co-Founder / Vungle
What do you get with Trends:
Private Community
The most powerful business peer group
Connect with thousands of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, executives and insiders. Collectively, Trends members have companies with tens of billions in revenue.
They say you’re the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with. Are you surrounding yourself with the right people? You are now.

Weekly Case Studies
Curated stories from the business world
Dive into the success stories of companies around the world and discover how they achieved.




Market Signals
In-depth trends analysis & monitoring
Discover what’s trending before it goes viral

Don’t press snooze on this opportunity: sleep supplements
The signal: As meditation becomes mainstream, people may be surprised to find that searches for sleep apps double their meditation counterpart. As people invest in getting a better night’s rest, there’s opportunity abound, including physical products like weighted blankets or premium PJs, supplements, popular insomnia drugs having their patents expire, companies paying their employees to sleep better, marketing for sleep specialists, or online sleep education (ex: sleep apnea test has 27k searches per month).

The alternative milk market is getting frothy
The signal: As more people wave goodbye to dairy, alternative milk is slowly taking over; it has already cornered 13% of the market. With the exception of soy milk, all of the alt-milks have been on the up, with some of the newer entrants including hemp milk and pea milk. Other alt-products are getting attention, including cashew cheese, with 18100 searches per month.

Capitalizing on the Airpods market, making more money than Shopify
The signal: Since killing the headphone jack, Apple has graced the world with AirPods, which did an estimated 60m units in 2019. That means AirPods alone are bringing in approx ~$10b in revenue, more than Twitter, Shopify, or Spotify, to name a few popular tech giants. Opportunity lies in Apple opening up SiriOS or the wave of iPhone accessories (including cases, cleaning kits, hooks, and keychains) which have shown “hockey stick” growth alongside their hardware predecessor.
Weekly Lectures
Leading experts share their knowledge
Attend exclusive lectures from experts in the industry and stay in the know
Sound good?
7 Day Trial
Join Trends now for $1!