A new report from the New York City-based research firm, Kalorama Information indicates that the telemedicine market has grown 237 percent in five years, from 2007 to last year. In a report, Advanced Patient Monitoring Systems, Kalorama revealed that the market value went from $4.2 billion to $10 billion in that time period.

According to the researchers, the telemedicine market is still small, but it continues to grow due to a large amount of vendors and increasing awareness of its effectiveness. Overall, the aging population, increasing costs of healthcare, dwindling resources, advancing technologies, and it cost-effectiveness are reasons for its growth.

Referring to the telemedicine systems as patient monitors used outside of an acute healthcare facility, the researchers at Kalorama added that this market is more competitive than the one for systems in hospitals and vendors are fragmented with a fair number of privately held companies. Some of companies mentioned in the report are AMD, Philips, Second Opinion Telemedicine, and Bosch.

"The home healthcare and remote location health monitoring market is different from the hospital market, in large part because reimbursements are lower or are just beginning to take hold, and for some products are still nonexistent," Melissa Elder, Kalorama analyst and the author of the report, said in a statement. "Unit costs will go up as older units are replaced with wireless, handheld, and ambulatory devices."

Volume will be the key to this market, says Elder. She also notes that telemedicine is a global phenomenon and other countries, like Switzerland, have created a system where the technology is deeply integrated into healthcare.

Another report, from the Mountain View, Calif.-based Frost & Sullivan, had the telemedicine industry valued at $1.9 billion.