The COVID 19 pandemic has given a shot in the arm to the health tech providers. Technology has major advantages when it comes to collecting and managing data and information spread over time and space. It becomes all the more relevant in cases of infectious diseases where health workers are likely to get infected when providing care to patients.
In a pandemic situation where large numbers of individuals are infected and the patient load is beyond the ability of healthcare providers to provide individualized personalized care. We have seen healthcare service providers getting overwhelmed in pandemic situations.
The advantages of health tech, though, is often overstated by the health tech industry providers. Health care to human beings is not just data, prescriptions, and remote advisory. Patients require counseling, human touch, empathy along with medicine. Health tech solutions on offer today are restricted to remote data capture, transmission with limited analytical capability.
Most health tech providers are startups. They are full of energy and enthusiasm and are firm believers in technology solutions. Dozens of such providers have mushroomed in different parts of the world.
Their enthusiasm, the crying need of the world for better and timely health care is the cause of exponential growth seen in this emerging industry. Venture funding is fuelling this boom. This is taking the health tech industry towards a bubble.
We have known over the years that very few startups, especially in the tech industry have finally made it and emerged as successful businesses. Health tech has the potential of providing answers to the world’s health problems. But it will require time to mature and acquire new capabilities that will be able to not just handle data remotely and make it available to caregivers in real-time but also provide the human touch critical to health care. We are moving towards a brave new world but we have still many miles to go.
