The Takeover of Health Tech

The rise of health technology started years before the COVID — read: Corona — pandemic. It’s been a burgeoning sector drawing attention and rapid investment due to the profitable solutions and benefits they represent.

A New Hope

• Remote monitoring

• Diagnostic improvements

• Improved accessibility

• Facilitates inclusive and diversified management

The reality is that this boom is unlikely to be a fad. COVID-19 might have made us realize how important it is to protect our health, but the health tech sector will empower us to take charge of our health — starting with health wearables.

The Wearables Awaken

Look at your wrist — Fitbit. Apple Watch. Galaxy Watch. Random Off-Brand $40 Chinese Knockoff. We’ve already got some form of health tech in our lives already.

Those steps you count or sleep quality you monitor helps you keep an eye on your wellbeing — and we’re well past the antiquated step trackers. The wearables market is a massive enterprise. Today, you can even buy an oximeter in the form of a sock to monitor your baby’s breathing and heart rate— and it won’t even break the bank. 10 years ago and this kind of tech would usually only be found in a hospital.

Even people with chronic diseases like diabetes, can now attain patch-style glucometers that can consistently track their blood glucose levels (needle-free mind you), send their logs wirelessly to their healthcare providers and it lasts 14 days.

The Rise of the App

Healthcare apps are on an ever increasing rise as well. From monitoring apps that allow users to measure their own stats (this is kinda like task shifting, but we’ll get into that later), improve their health literacy and connect with different communities. Phones these days are so advanced that our cameras can detect the color changes from our fingertips and associate it with heart rate!

It is widely accepted that as the cost of healthcare and rate of chronic disease continue to rise, the healthcare system comes under greater pressure to serve the community. But to guarantee sustainability of the new pressures, changes are needed. A promising solution is shifting the focus of healthcare from the hospital to primary care, bolstered by improved stakeholder involvement (that’s you the patient, your doctor, and everyone else involved in the system) and interconnectivity. Even the World Health Organization agrees — mainly because this means that as a society we can move from treating diseases to preventing them. I’ve oversimplified this concept in this article, but you get the general idea.

Of course this means that healthcare staff (like doctors, surgeons, nurses and health educators) will need to better delegate and share tasks, especially ones not traditionally performed by un-specialized staff. This is the principle of task shifting. I like to think about it like working towards the greater good by training capable people to do higher level tasks to optimize healthcare delivery.

The Return of Artificial Intelligence

It’s not just the patients that health tech has helped. A.I. or artificial intelligence is more than just personalized health tips these days — today’s algorithms can detect cancer, prevent heart attacks and aid in the management of lung imaging for cystic fibrosis patients.

You might not be able to give yourself a CT (yet) but these advances have helped doctors better screen, diagnose and treat patients. Nearly gone are the days where doctors have to multi-task — with the right integrations and support, there is a push for more patient-centered care.

Even in training and medical education we can see the beneficial impacts of health tech. Where there was once a body crunch of available cadavers for medical students, AI and virtual reality have stepped in to fill the gap.

But don’t just listen to me. Every year, Inc., publishes it’s list of the fastest growing companies of which health tech takes up nearly 2.5% (more than double the year before)! If that’s not exponential growth, then I’m a monkeys uncle.

If you got all the Star Wars references — good on you. Aren’t you a smart cookie.