• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, April 27, 2021

T-Mobile is partnering with a company that provides telehealth and remote patient monitoring services, the wireless company said on Tuesday in a joint announcement with Maryland-based Zyter Inc.

For T-Mobile, the partnership could let the company boast of a built-in ability to help rural medical providers reach their far-flung patients. As part of the Federal Communications Commission decision to allow the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, finalized only a year ago, the wireless provider had to agree to a long list of promises to quickly bring upgraded 5G services to rural communities, where broadband services are often bare-boned.

“We believe that every American has the right to quality healthcare that is safe and secure,” said Mike Katz, executive vice president of T-Mobile. “By partnering with Zyter, we can outfit healthcare organizations of all sizes with solutions that reach more people and enable faster and more reliable virtual care through familiar devices like smartphones and tablets.”

Patients would be able to use any wireless service to interact with medical services, but T-Mobile and Zyter will offer deals that will make the so-called UnCarrier’s offer better.

Because of the COVID-19 crisis, the Centers for Disease Control reported a 154% increase in telehealth visits in the last week of March 2020 over a year ago. That was the month Americans began to overwhelmingly realize the potential effect of the disease. The CDC encouraged the trend, noting, “Telehealth could have multiple benefits during the pandemic by expanding access to care,” and adding, “Telehealth policy changes might continue to support increased care access during and after the pandemic.”

Michael Donner, the chief marketing officer at Zyter, told Marketing Daily, “Healthcare delivery organizations including integrated delivery networks, life science companies, hospitals, health systems and payer organizations who are customers of T-Mobile will now be able to access Zyter’s digital health solutions on their existing T-Mobile hardware. But they will need to license the Zyter digital health platform to access. “

Zyter has been in business since 2017 in what is an increasingly competitive field. The U.S. telehealth business was estimated at $10 billion last year and is predicted to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 30% by 2025. Many analysts credit the pandemic for increasing consumer awareness and acceptance of getting medical attention via a laptop or smartphone.

Last year, the health and technology website HITconsultant.com said the value of the top 20 digital health M&As totaled $50 billion.