Humana Inc. and AMC Health have publicly confirmed a new partnership to forge a telehealth pilot designed to improve congestive heart failure (CHF) outcomes.

Humana, a leading health and well-being company, and AMC Health, a provider of end-to-end telehealth solutions, are launching a nine-month Humana Cares Heart Failure Remote Monitoring Program. During that time, AMC Health will provide in-home monitoring solutions and services to help 450 Humana Medicare Advantage members in Ohio suffering from CHF better manage their conditions and adhere to their care plans.

The remote patient monitoring solutions include Bluetooth-enabled scales and blood pressure monitors, which will be used in conjunction with a cellular modem, and Interactive Voice Response technology.

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A new Kalorama report points to dramatic growth in the telemedicine market over the last five years.

In particular, telemedicine patient monitoring ballooned from $4.2 billion in 2007 to north of $10 billion in 2012.

This Kalorama Information report, Advanced Remote Patient Monitoring Systems, is a comprehensive study on the patient monitoring industry, including the advanced system with remote and wireless capability to includes patient monitoring equipment and devices which have advanced features.

“Aging populations, increases in healthcare costs, advancing technologies and the often cost effectiveness of patient monitoring are all reasons contributing to market growth,” explains Erin McCann, Associate Editor of HealthCareITNews, which summarized the new Kalorama study’s findings. “Sales will continue their upward trend, as older monitoring equipment is replaced by wireless or remote monitors. Growth will increase over the forecast period as compatibility, privacy and security issues continue to be resolved.”

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On Wednesday, Frost & Sullivan indicated in a new report that telehealth opportunities in Asia-Pacific are on the rise.

The APAC market for real-time telemedicine generated revenue worth $44.6 million in 2012 while remote patient monitoring equipment generated $773.5 million.

For the full year, however, the report shows that mhealth was the largest revenue contributor in 2012, with an estimated $7.9 billion generated through voice, text and mobile services in healthcare.

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Despite some initial resistance to the concept, the number of veterans warming to the prospect of telehealth therapy is growing.

An ABC News affiliate in Charleston, S.C. reports that the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center has become an industry leader in mental health research for veterans.

And telehealth therapy may play a key role in this continued growth.

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According to the findings presented in a new report from Mercom Capital Group, venture capital investors can’t get enough of technology’s role in contemporary healthcare.

Business ventures involved in mHealth, telehealth, and virtually all areas of healthcare-focused technology are seeing a dramatic escalation of investor capital.

Venture capital (VC) funding in the HIT sector continued to gain momentum in another record quarter with $493 million raised. There were 104 funding deals in this quarter compared to 51 in the previous quarter. There were also 42 early stage deals this quarter compared to 14 in Q4 2012.

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The findings of a recent survey by Cisco suggest that a growing number of patients may prefer telehealth to human contact.

Although telehealth isn’t poised to imminently remove all human touch from healthcare by any stretch of the imagination, the melding of human expertise and technological precision in the application of healthcare is growing more pronounced with each passing year.

“The patient and care provider experiences are top of mind in health care around the world,” explains Kathy English, Senior Director of Public Sector and Healthcare Marketing at Cisco. “Due to the increasing convergence of the digital and physical, there is an opportunity to provide increased collaboration and information sharing among providers to improve the care experience and operate more efficiently.”

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Revised estimates from the Association of American Medical Colleges indicate that digital health technologies may prove a valuable solution to the growing scarcity of primary care physicians.

The AAMC anticipates an overall shortage of 91,500 and 130,600 active patient care physicians in 2020 and 2025 respectively, and a primary care shortage of 45,400 and 65,800 physicians in 2020 and 2025.

But there may be a solution to this dilemma.

Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, famously observed in 2012 that 80% of doctors could one day be replaced by technology.

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