Credit: Ani Kolleshi.
health tech report
Pandemic-driven health tech The outbreak of Covid-19 drove rapid rollout of technology-led care provision, necessitated by a need to offer digital-first care solutions. Historically slow to adopt new innovations at pace, healthcare has for a long time been recognised as an area in which technology could drive greater efficiencies and outcomes. However, a number of notable barriers have stood in the way of integration of digital solutions, not least, regulatory barriers, an unwillingness to modify and collaborate existing systems and cost.
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delivery, has altered that mindset. In fact, experts assess that such was the extent of the boom in health tech innovation over the past year and a half that progress is now irreversible and will form a basis for greater innovations in the near future.
While the potential benefits of things like telehealth, data-driven diagnostics, and augmented reality (AR) are well known, the rigid structures of the health service and the scale of the transformation required, led many to accept that the pace of integration of health tech solutions at scale would be slow.
Two distinct trends have underpinned much of the current innovation. The first is a change of culture. The Covid-19 response required unprecedented levels of flexibility and cemented the role of technology within the sector as an enabler. Where previously health tech innovation had to slowly navigate preventative structure and barriers, historic hesitancy of innovation adoption was reversed in favour of speedy deployment and fresh agility.
The pandemic and the subsequent response, including rapid deployment of health tech solutions to address the much-changed landscape of service
A second key trend was a more structured move to demand-led health tech solutions. Health tech companies had a greater understanding of the
challenges facing the health service and worked to deliver solutions to real-time problems. Recognition of immediate benefits to technology adoption has aided the willingness of the sector to integrate these new innovations. As a result, much of the technological innovation has tended to focus on new applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and data platforms, automating regular tasks historically carried out by medical professionals and also providing remote access to medical advice for patients. Remote healthcare solutions have dominated the health tech boom. A transition to solutions such as online consultations, diagnosis and treatment has been necessitated by social distancing requirements and protection of healthcare staff and patients. Some examples of emerging health tech solutions include:
