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It was March 2020, and Dr. Sarah Chen was watching her carefully constructed patient care system collapse in real time.
The cardiology practice she'd built over fifteen years suddenly had to turn away patients who desperately needed monitoring. Her high-risk heart failure patients were now isolated at home, afraid to venture into hospitals. The expensive remote monitoring devices her practice had invested in? Half of her elderly patients couldn't figure out how to use them.
Then something remarkable happened. Within weeks, her practice was conducting more patient consultations than ever before—all through video calls. Telemedicine encounters across the healthcare system increased by 766% in just three months. But Dr. Chen quickly realized that seeing patients on screen wasn't enough. She needed their vital signs, their real physiological data, to make informed decisions.
What Dr. Chen experienced is now driving one of the largest market opportunities in healthcare history.
When Technology Meets Reality
Today, the global telehealth market is projected to explode from $186.41 billion in 2025 to $791.04 billion by 2032. But here's what most people miss: this isn't really about video calls replacing doctor visits. The real revolution is happening in remote patient monitoring, where contactless technology is solving problems that have plagued healthcare for decades.
To understand why this matters, picture Mrs. Rodriguez, a 78-year-old diabetes patient whose doctor wants to monitor her vital signs between visits. In the traditional system, this meant ordering specialized equipment that costs anywhere from $275 to $7,963 per patient annually. Then shipping it to her home with instructions she'll inevitably lose or misunderstand.
The inevitable phone call comes next. Mrs. Rodriguez can't figure out how to sync the device. Her grandson drives over to help. The device works for two weeks, then stops transmitting data. No one knows if it's broken, uncharged, or simply abandoned because it was too uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Dr. Chen's staff spends hours troubleshooting device problems instead of analyzing patient data. The technology that was supposed to improve care has become a burden for everyone involved.
A Different Kind of Breakthrough
Then came rPPG technology—remote photoplethysmography. It sounds complex, but the concept is elegantly simple: your smartphone camera can detect the subtle color changes in your skin that occur with each heartbeat.
In January 2025, the FDA cleared the first mobile application for contactless pulse rate measurement—a watershed moment that validated what researchers had been working toward for years. Suddenly, every smartphone, webcam, and tablet became a potential medical monitoring device.
Dr. Chen discovered this when a patient sent her a heart rate reading taken during chest discomfort. The reading was accurate within 1% of hospital-grade equipment. More importantly, it was taken instantly, when the patient actually needed monitoring.
"My patient didn't have to find a device, remember to use it, or worry about whether it was working," Dr. Chen recalls. "They just opened an app, took a 30-second video, and I had the data I needed."
The Ripple Effect
This transformation is rippling across every corner of healthcare. Over 129 million Americans live with chronic diseases that require ongoing monitoring. Mental health has seen telehealth penetration reach 50% in psychiatry, with therapists now incorporating real-time stress measurements into remote sessions.
Corporate wellness programs are embedding contactless monitoring into their platforms. Insurance companies are exploring how continuous health monitoring might enable personalized coverage and early intervention. With the US population over 65 expected to grow from 58 million to 82 million by 2050, contactless monitoring offers a way to age in place safely.
The Developer's Dilemma
Behind this healthcare transformation is a strategic shift in how health technology gets built. The healthcare API market has grown to $1.25 billion, creating a fundamental choice for technology companies: build complex health monitoring capabilities from scratch, or integrate proven APIs and focus on user experience.
Sarah Kim, a developer at a telehealth startup, faced this decision last year. Her team needed vital signs monitoring for their patient engagement platform. "We could have spent 18 months building computer vision algorithms and navigating FDA regulations," she explains. "Or we could integrate a contactless vital signs API and launch in six weeks."
They chose the API route. Six weeks later, their platform was processing thousands of measurements daily, and they focused their engineering resources on patient experience rather than rebuilding existing technology.
Money Follows Innovation
The investment community has taken notice. Venture capital investment in digital health has tripled since 2017, with health AI investments reaching an estimated $11 billion in 2024. But investors are becoming more sophisticated about where they place bets.
"We're seeing a clear split," says Jennifer Walsh, a healthcare VC partner. "Companies that focus on user experience and leverage best-in-class APIs are moving faster than those trying to build everything in-house."
Over 170 companies are developing remote patient monitoring software, but the ones achieving rapid scale prioritize time-to-market over technical complexity.
The Path Forward
The regulatory environment is actively supporting this transformation. Medicare telehealth flexibilities have been extended through September 2025, providing regulatory certainty for companies investing in telehealth solutions. The FDA's clearance of contactless pulse monitoring signals acceptance of camera-based vital signs as legitimate medical tools.
As Dr. Chen reflects on her practice's transformation, she's struck by how natural contactless monitoring now feels. "The technology that seemed impossible five years ago is now something my 85-year-old patients use without thinking about it."
For Mrs. Rodriguez, this means never struggling with complicated medical devices again. For Dr. Chen, it means monitoring more patients more effectively. For technology companies, it represents one of the largest opportunities in healthcare history.
The infrastructure is ready. The market is demanding it. The regulatory environment supports it.
The question isn't whether contactless vital signs will transform telehealth—it's whether your company will be part of that transformation, or watching it happen from the sidelines.
References
Weiner, J.P., et al. "In-Person and Telehealth Ambulatory Contacts and Costs in a Large US Insured Cohort Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic." JAMA Network Open, 2021; 4(3):e212618.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9035352/
Fortune Business Insights. "Telehealth Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report, 2025-2032."
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/telehealth-market-101065Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation. "FDA Clears World's First Mobile App for Contactless Pulse Rate Measurement." January 26, 2025.
https://www.hkstp.org/en/park-life/news-and-events/news/fda-clears-worlds-first-mobile-app-for-contactless-pulse-rate-measurementGrand View Research. "Healthcare API Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report, 2025-2030."
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/healthcare-api-market
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1357633X16669239
