A new study by Juniper Research has revealed that around 765 million teleconsultations will be carried out globally by 2025.

The consultations enable patients to attend appointments virtually without physical contact with a doctor, something that has become essential during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Juniper’s data indicated a rise in consultations performed remotely from 422 million this year to more than 750 million by mid-decade — an 80% increase.

Teleconsultation services have become a common platform for doctor appointments, especially for vulnerable patients needing to remain isolated.

There is an option for teleconsultations to further become “an integral element of healthcare provision,” according to Juniper, but platforms must “develop solutions that cater to differing capacities” of regional healthcare sectors.

Cloud services and 5G connectivity are seen as key ways to enable this increased uptake to benefit from remote teleconsultation technologies.

Research author Adam Wears commented: “Teleconsultation services require high bandwidth, which is often unavailable in developing regions; limiting the impacts of services in these areas.

“However, the report predicts that 5G technologies can be used as a last-mile solution to underpin service provision in areas where Internet connectivity is sparse or inadequate.”

Juniper’s new report predicts that the average patient globally will use teleconsultation services 3.6 times per year.

However, the need for mobile devices and connectivity will “limit the uptake” of the services to developed regions and, accordingly, data predicts that over 50% of teleconsultations will occur in North America and Europe by 2025.

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Previous research by Juniper found that telemedicine, in general, will save healthcare industries up to $21 billion in costs by mid-century; a rise from $11 billion in 2021 and a growth rate of more than 80%.

In Scotland, moving to digital services is being pushed as essential as telecoms providers look to shut down analogue phone lines by around 2025, and in some cases as early as 2023.

This will take away vital telecare services used by up to 1.8 million people across the UK and around 167,000 in Scotland. Telecare technology is installed in the homes of citizens in need of extra help looking after themselves and offers remote contact with council-run or private telecare providers to give them support.

Juniper’s report on telecommunications services is a positive sign that healthcare providers are beginning to understand the importance of digital services going forward.

On top of the current teleconsultation technologies, Juniper predicts that the use of healthcare wearables will enable healthcare providers to “more efficiently obtain patients’ health data without the need for a physical visit”.

As a result, the report says that teleconsultation platforms must begin to develop cloud-based services that are capable of securely housing sensitive healthcare information.