After years of “pilotitis” two big economies have created the conditions that will enable telemonitoring and telehealth to take off.

Telehealth has suffered from two big barriers. Firstly, a lack of remuneration means that doctors are often unwilling to use new technology. Secondly, the sector has always been dogged by the need to provide an almost impossible blind trials level of proof.

Recent steps in Germany and the USA, among other countries, is alleviating this. Medicare and Medicaid now remunerate telehealth and telemonitoring at $60-90 a patient. And something similar will be launched in Germany too.

In the USA to get the payment all that is required is proof that a doctor has looked at the results once during the month. At the same time vendors say that they know that standards of proof will be demanded in a year or two. The whole process should provide conditions for lift-off for the sector.

It is against this background that big for-profit hospital and elderly care providers are starting to invest in the sector led by Asklepios which promises to spend €500m on digital by 2024.