Impact of COVID-19 on Global Digital Health Industry

According to IMARC Group, The global digital health market reached a value of US$ 289 Billion in 2021. The role of digital technology continues to evolve with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), highlighting the progress being made and the challenges still faced. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in massive disruptions within health care, both directly due to the infectious disease outbreak and indirectly due to public health measures to mitigate against transmission. Digital health utilizes computing platforms, connectivity, software, and sensors for diverse health care processes and related uses. These technologies have the ability to accurately diagnose and treat diseases while enhancing the delivery of health care for the individual. 

How does digital health technology benefits patients?

Digital health empowers patients to make better-informed decisions about their health and provides new options for facilitating prevention, diagnosing the attack of the virus at an early stage, and managing the condition outside of traditional health care settings. Consequently, the conventional face-to-face patient-physician care model has been re-examined in several countries, with digital technology and new models of care being rapidly deployed to meet the various challenges of the pandemic. Digital health applications have helped find, quarantine, and treat infected people who have COVID-19, including asymptomatic carriers, at a faster rate, thereby substantially slowing the spread of the virus and reducing the number of new cases that occur each day.

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COVID-19 becomes an enabler and accelerator of digital health adoption

The COVID-19 pandemic has created numerous challenges for health care services worldwide. As a result, health care providers and users are increasingly opting for digital health technologies to help reduce inefficiencies, improve access, reduce costs, increase quality, and make medicines more personalized for patients. Besides this, several countries have adopted digital-first strategies, remote monitoring and telehealth platforms to enable healthcare provision without physical interactions. Moreover, the advancements in healthcare infrastructure have enabled patients at homes to have their computerized tomography (CT) scans read by medical experts miles away. This is critically crucial when the cases are at their peak to minimize the chances of losing track of infected people while expanding diagnostic capacity without hampering the healthcare workforce. Furthermore, governments of various countries are implementing favorable policies to encourage the adoption of digital health solutions to promote the incorporation of electronic intensive care units (e-ICU), which allow remote patient monitoring through high-speed internet, two-way cameras and electronic devices.

Several healthcare authorities are supporting and conducting online consultation by revamping existing privately-owned online telemedicine platforms and equipping public hospitals for such functions. Telemedicine is helping healthcare workers and the general public by providing mental health support in difficult times via various online platforms. For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) is working extensively to maximize the use of digital health technology on the global level. It has implemented an mHealth program known as Be He@lthy Be Mobile (BHBM) in partnership with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which aims to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by exploiting the widespread base of mobile subscriptions, the majority of which lies in developing economies of the world.

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Market Summary:

• On the basis of the type, the market is divided into telehealth, medical wearables, EMR/EHR systems, medical apps, healthcare analytics and others.
• Based on the component, the market has been classified into software, hardware and services.
• On the geographical front, the market has been segregated into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.
• The competitive landscape of the market has been analyzed, with the detailed profiles of the key players operating in the market. Some of these players include AirStrip Technologies Inc., AT&T, Athenahealth Inc.,  eClinicalWorks, iHealth Lab Inc., Kininklijke Philips N.V., McKesson Corporation, Omron Healthcare (Omron Corporation), Oracle Corporation, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and Veradigm LLC.