With the majority of health-care costs spent for the treatment of chronic diseases (High BP, Dibetes...

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With the majority of health-care costs spent for the treatmentof chronic diseases (High BP, Dibetes & HIV) and the reason formost emergency room visits being non-emergencies, the time is ripefor telemedicine in South Africa. More so with Covid-19 pandemic,patients are reluctunt to visit a hospital for non-emergencies.Patients are using their phones, tablets, and keyboards instead ofmaking an office visit or trip to the emergency room. Technologymakes it possible for doctors to consult with patients throughSkype or FaceTime on smartphones, access medical tests viaelectronic medical records, and send a prescription to a patient’slocal pharmacy—all from miles away. The telemedicine industry isstill in its infancy, earning only $868 million in annual revenuein 2017, but it is predicted to increase to an almost $56 billionindustry by 2023. It is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 17% from 2018to 2023 (forecast period). Technology isn’t the only reason forthis industry’s growth such as adoption of electronic healthrecords (EHR) by hospitals is one of the primary drivers of themarket. The legislation suport by Governements that are encouragingelectronic medical records is also adding fuel to this fire. Inorder to ensure health care services are still being providedduring the national period of shut down and during the Covid- 19pandemic and to achieve the objectives of “The Allied HealthProfessions Act” (63) was amended on 25 March 2020 by PresidentCyril Ramaphosa that allows to practice telehealth and/ortelemedicne for medical professionals.
Based on the scenario given above, critically discuss pros andcons of offering medical services with help of telemedicine.Critically discuss the marketing decisions that may be used in theselected product life cycle of telemedicine? Critically evaluatethe role of mobile technology and artificial intelligence (AI) inthe evolution of this industry and predict future trajectory?Justify your response.

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Telemedicine as an alternative to conventional outpatient appointments with doctors has been active in nascent or developed form for more than two decades The preferences of stakeholders both doctors and patients in past have meant that telemedicine always remained the secondary rather than the go to option as far as medical consultation was concerned The current scenario of covid19 has meant that most hospitals and medical facilities along with medical professionals are engaged in mitigation of the pandemic and control of spread to the extent possible This has meant more hands on and face to face time of medical professionals being spent among people infected which such viral and infectious diseases As a result face to face consultation in outpatient departments for chronic illness has taken a backseat in terms of priority A renewed growth in telemedicine can thus be seen till such time the pandemic subsides If in this window of opportunity telemedicine can establish itself as a credible consistent and convenient alternative to face to face consultation that was the norm in the pre pandemic time then telemedicine can become the goto method for patients especially considering the conveniences that it can offer Some of the key advantages of the telemedicine can be understood in view of the above The conventional standard practice of consultation for chronic illness employs a discussion with doctor followed See Answer

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