Digital health – pushing the frontiers
Gone are the days when digitalisation was merely a novelty in health care that would fizzle out after a few years, like so many other technical innovations
DIGITAL health is one of the most promising growth sectors in the healthcare industry.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the major drivers of global healthcare, other factors include the growing incidence of chronic diseases associated with ageing, mental health issues, and rising medical costs.
Gone are the days when digitalisation was merely a novelty in health care that would fizzle out after a few years, like so many other technical innovations.
The global onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of using digital-health technologies to tackle the long-forgotten vulnerabilities that had laid dormant within most countries’ public health systems.
After all, worldwide, over 6 million people have lost their lives to the SARSCOV2 virus and tens of millions more are still coping with the neurological or psychological aftereffects of their infections.
Socio-economic perspective
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From the socioeconomic perspective, the viral outbreak has also brutally brought the (in) equalities of access to quality care to the fore.
Health equality is more likely to be compromised for vulnerable communities like financially deprived individuals, households, and minorities.
The rising availability of remote care over the past 2 years has enabled patients and consumers to access quality care at any time and from anywhere, making it more likely that greater adoption can help to improve health equity for marginalised and underserved communities.
Besides, it can also reinforce the resilience of our health systems against present and future threats by tackling issues relating to escalating health care costs, physician shortages, and the growing burden of chronic diseases associated with an ageing population.
Nevertheless, the healthcare industry is faced with one of the most arduous tasks of coping with an excess and dearth of information at the same time.
As the World Economic Forum estimates, around 97 per cent of the 50 petabytes of health data (comprising clinical notes, genomics, and medical images) churned out by hospitals every year goes unused.
The greater adoption of advanced analytic techniques like artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics has the potential to revolutionise health care, especially in the areas of clinical trials, drug discovery and development, and diagnosis.
A world can be envisaged where patients’ well-being stands at the centre of health care, further facilitating the shift from the traditional feeforservice, volume-based model to new valuebased care in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Digital health is thus an integral and indispensable part of future health.
Digital transformation of health care
Accelerated by a global disease outbreak and an intensification of fund flows into digitalhealth startup in recent years, the digital transformation of health care is undoubtedly gathering pace across the world.
After all, digital tools have proven to be safe, effective, cost-efficient, and easily accessible for patients, consumers, and healthcare providers.
This development may eventually help bridge the gap in health equity and subsequently lead to overall higher satisfaction, especially among patients who face the most barriers to traditional face-to-face care services (for example, rural patients and out-of-reach communities) and those who prefer receiving medical advice discretely from the comfort and safety of their homes.
The importance of digital technologies in future health care is reflected in the formulation of the WHO Global Strategy on Digital Health, which aims to make the dream of equitable and universal access to quality health services come true.
Indeed, digital health can help make health systems more efficient and sustainable, enabling them to deliver good quality, affordable, and equitable care.
From an investment perspective, we hold a positive view on the long-term investment opportunities in the digital health space.
With regard to electronic health records (EHR), its nearsaturation adoption in a growing number of highincome countries means that there may be reduced additional uptake at clinics and hospitals. For this reason, providers may have to look at other major markets like Brazil, China, and India for further growth.
The lack of interoperability between different EHR systems also means that providers should seek to improve their existing EHR systems, an area that could provide further adoption potential.
As for telemedicine, the heightened use of virtual care as an ideal mode of care solution during the pandemic-induced lockdowns in the last 2 years may lead to a slight decrease in the number of users over the short term.
Nevertheless, it should stabilise at a level that is higher than in pre-Covid-19 times.
The longer-term prospects remain intact, since it can help address patients’ needs with regard to a wide range of concerns, including mental health.
Maintaining a positive stance on the digital health theme
Against the backdrop of rising incidences of chronic diseases, like cancer, heart diseases, diabetes, and obesity across the world, companies that are engaged in remote patient monitoring and wearables are poised for expansion.
The promise that digital technologies bring to bridging health disparities, enhancing health outcomes, and pushing frontiers further has also led to growing fund inflows into digitalhealth startups.
When we look at the top-funded digital-health categories, the top-5 digital-health sectors that amassed the most venture-capital funding in 2021 were telemedicine, data analytics, mobile health applications, wellness, and wearable sensors.
In the case of telemedicine, for instance, the sector attracted nearly US$10 billion in funding, accounting for almost 30 per cent of all investments.
With increasing focus on technology as a viable, long-term solution for tackling some of the pressing health challenges facing our society, along with a greater awareness about the importance of leading healthier lifestyles, we maintain our positive stance on the digitalhealth theme.
The writer is Next Generation Research Analyst at Julius Baer
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