Digital Health: Scaling Healthcare To The World

Health care delivery is undergoing a rapid change from traditional processes toward the use of digital health interventions and personalized medicine. This movement has been accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis as a response to the need to guarantee access to health care services while reducing the risk of contagion. Digital health scale-up is now also vital to achieve population-wide impact: it will only accomplish sustainable effects if and when deployed into regular health care delivery services. The question of how sustainable digital health scale-up can be successfully achieved has, however, not yet been sufficiently resolved. This paper identifies and discusses enablers and barriers for scaling up digital health innovations. The results discussed in this paper were gathered by scientists and representatives of public bodies as well as patient organizations at an international workshop on scaling up digital health innovations. Results are explored in the context of prior research and implications for future work in achieving large-scale implementations that will benefit the population as a whole.

The Evidence Lab enables health tech innovators to systematically test and validate a proof of concept of a digital health solution with real-world test partners in a healthcare setting, prior to full-scale implementation.

Download File

While COVID-19 accelerated digital healthcare, there remains a strong need to ensure the patient voice is incorporated into the development of digital health solutions, and that solutions are valuable for both patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs).1 Conversely, health tech innovators face limitations to performing timely, cost-effective and robust evaluation from inception, therefore hindering wider adoption of potential high-impact innovations.2

The Novartis Biome will facilitate the sharing of learnings and best practices across the network of partners to reduce duplicative testing and promote faster scaling of solutions that are showing promise in related healthcare settings. The aim is to create a learning network where each of the members collectively works together to accelerate innovation in healthcare.

This Digital Health Compendium enables users to explore case studies across a range of digital health technologies used to enhance family planning programs mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in other regions of the world. Digital health applications in family planning programs can be broadly classified as those affecting demand generation, service delivery, supply chain management, and the policy and enabling environment. In many low- and middle-income countries, digital health innovations were adopted earlier in other health sectors, including HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and noncommunicable disease prevention and response. As a result, much of the impact evidence is restricted to those sectors. To advance greater adoption of digital technology in family planning programs, more data and information on the challenges, opportunities, scalability, and results are needed. This compendium aims to consolidate emerging information and data on applications of digital technology in family planning programs to inform adoption and scale-up of successful approaches.

The use of digital health interventions has the potential to improve healthcare delivery and sustainability, bringing about many exciting advancements in the treatment and management of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Despite the continuous need for services by people living with NCDs, factors such as distance, cost, mobility, displacement and emergencies can compromise service delivery. The pandemic has only worsened the situation, as health facilities were occupied with COVID-19 patients and NCD patients were required to stay home to avoid severe symptoms, increasing stress and anxiety at a time when mental health services were also affected.

To fully engage with this promising future, partnerships between governments and the private sector, academia, IT specialists, and other stakeholders are needed, along with the development of a regulatory framework for successful joint ventures. This includes scaling up the use of digital health interventions within health systems and exchanging experiences with other countries.

In 2018, WHO Member States approved a resolution on Digital Health, recognizing the value of digital technologies in providing healthcare access without financial hardship. Taking action in this area is crucial in reaching the 2030 goal of reducing premature deaths from NCDs by one third and promoting mental health and well-being.

While digital technology should not replace in-person consultation, it is crucial in times of crisis and will continue to provide healthcare access where it is limited or unavailable. Collaboration between public and private sectors, people and technology, is necessary to create a healthier future for all.

In 2021, digital health companies catalyzing R&D in biopharma and medtech topped the chart with $5.8B in funding, stimulated by the COVID-accelerated adoption of real-world evidence and decentralized trials. Investments in digital products supporting disease treatment grew 2.6x between 2020 and 2021 as coverage pathways for prescription digital therapeutics widened. Healthcare marketplaces also experienced a 3.2x year-over-year funding growth, driven by upticks in D2C marketplaces (Mindbody), caregiver marketplaces (Honor $370M)2, and clinical job boards (Trusted Health $149M across two rounds).

Nimble business models

As the most severe portions of the pandemic subsided in 2021, healthcare sales cycles returned to pre-pandemic timelines and point solutions faced more trouble proving out differentiated value to overwhelmed buyers. In certain sectors like telehealth, startups found themselves in commodity businesses, winning enterprise customers not with product quality but with network scale and integration capabilities. Changes like these are pushing digital health companies to reconsider their business models and go-to-market strategies.

Rock Health Advisory provides guidance on digital health strategy, access to proprietary funding databases, and in-depth perspectives on the digital health market. For digital health insights targeted to your needs, drop us a note at advisory@rockhealth.com.

Finally, stay up to date with the latest headlines in healthcare technology and Rock Health news by subscribing to the Rock Weekly.

Her passion grew while working as International Director for Government Affairs for Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia, where she built a shared value/social innovation digital health strategy focused on scaling digital health in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), working with multiple public and private organizations.

We have built a unique team of international consultants and advisors, all experts on different facets of global digital health. Our partners are based around the world: Cameroon, Canada, France, Ethiopia, Germany, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Mali, Netherlands, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.

Despite all the excitement and hype generated regarding the expected transformative impact of digital technology on the healthcare industry, traditional healthcare systems around the world have largely remained unchanged and resultant improvements in developed countries are slower than anticipated. One area which was expected to significantly improve the quality of and access to primary healthcare services in particular is remote patient monitoring and management. Based on a combination of rapid advances in body sensors and information and communication technologies (ICT), it was hoped that remote patient management tools and systems (RPMTSs) would significantly reduce the care burden on traditional healthcare systems as well as health-related costs. However, the uptake or adoption of above systems has been extremely slow and their roll out has not yet properly taken off especially in developing countries where they ought to have made the greatest positive impact.

Africa stands apart as the continent with the youngest population in the world. There is an opportunity for African digital natives to accelerate and drive the adoption of technology and innovation faster than their predecessors

This article is part of a series that presents original insights based on exclusive research and interviews with global healthcare leaders. Complementing this, Siemens Healthineers has analyzed survey data, prepared by The Economist Intelligence Unit, to assess the current progress of healthcare digitalization. Find "Who are the leaders in digital health and what can we learn from them in times of COVID-19" as well as further case studies here.

Healthcare delivery has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and digitalization has become a key component transforming the healthcare landscape. In order to make this digital transformation sustainable even after the pandemic, we believe that four steps are essential for building a digital healthcare enterprise. Learn more.

Global investment firm B Capital, the venture capital firm of Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin, plans to focus on opportunities across healthcare, including digital health, HealthTech, Medtech and BioTech.

The current B Capital global healthcare portfolio includes over 20 companies in the United States, Asia and Europe, spanning early venture to late growth venture, across healthtech, digital health, biotech and MedTech.

We invest as a firm from seed stage to initial public offering (IPO). We focus on companies with product market fit that are scaling in HealthTech and digital health, and biotech companies near or in clinical development. Our target investments range between $15 million and $50 million on first check.

During the presentations and round tables, the speakers shared the key challenges faced by the different stakeholders in the ecosystem, as well as the strategies and best practices for scaling digital health.

38c6e68cf9