6 digital health trends for the new year
After a year marked by unpredictability, it may seem like a waste of time to anticipate what 2021 will bring.
After all, no one could have foreseen the all-out digital revolution that has taken healthcare by storm over the past 10 or so months. In an industry that has traditionally resisted digital innovation, the shift to virtual care and consumer adoption of telehealth, which skyrocketed 400% between the end of 2019 and April 2020, surprised even the most knowledgeable forecasters.
You could say ten years of change have happened in less than a year, and in many ways healthcare is virtually unrecognizable from where it was in March 2020.
Whatever else the new year may bring, it seems clear that digital health is here to stay, with healthcare systems continuing to rely on virtual solutions even as the threat of the pandemic is neutralized by the distribution of vaccines. Here are six things you can expect to see as healthcare navigates the new normal.
Big tech, Big everything related to health care. Or will they?
Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple all struck deals in 2019 to buy digital health startups, and those health care arms have seen rapid growth this year, along with those of other Big Tech companies like Zoom and Microsoft that are growing. are launched with new healthcare products and features. Partnerships between big tech and healthcare organizations have dominated the newswire, and the underlying M&A activity has picked up and will continue to do so. But how will the recent announcement of Haven disbanding after just three years impact this trend?
Related: Mitigating healthcare costs in 2021 depends on the right digital purchasing tools
Plus, Big Tech has been in the news lately for other reasons, as top executives have come under scrutiny over data, privacy and security issues — most recently testifying before the House antitrust subcommittee for an investigation into data misuse, among other concerns — significant concerns for the healthcare field.
Beyond telemedicine
Telemedicine was the finger in the dike at the start of the pandemic panic to prevent the dam from breaking, with health care providers grabbing whatever they got their hands on, encouraged by the relaxation of HIPAA regulations. But as the dust settles, telemedicine is emerging as the commodity it is, and value-added services are going to be the differentiators in an increasingly competitive market. Offerings such as remote patient monitoring and asynchronous communication, initially considered “interesting,” are becoming standard offerings as healthcare providers see their value for ongoing care beyond COVID.
Workflow is king… and queen, and the whole royal family?
I can’t stress this enough: COVID has kicked digital health adoption into overdrive. Late majority adopters have essentially fallen into digital health, without the typical implementation timeframe of several months. Suppliers are looking for solutions that will integrate seamlessly and quickly into their human workflows. An inferior product with a better workflow will always trump its superiors, and that’s a guarantee you can put to the bank. We’re going to see product offerings with more and easier integrations, while discussions about APIs, HL7, FHIR, app stores and marketplaces will continue.
More money, more problems
If this year is any indication, 2021 will be the biggest for healthcare funding yet. Before COVID-19, the total annual revenue of U.S. telehealth players was estimated at $3 billion, with the largest providers focusing on virtual emergency care, according to the latest McKinsey report. The report estimates that telehealth will represent a share of up to $250 billion this year. That’s 20% of all Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial outpatient, office, and home care. We are going to see more IPOs, roll-ups and venture capital activity.
It’s a double-edged sword. This could put the digital healthcare sector at risk of overheating and creating a bubble (if there isn’t already one) that is about to burst.
Payers pay and providers provide
As policymakers reverse previous extensions to digital health reimbursement, payers will begin to seek alternative mechanisms to reimburse and adopt digital health care that are outside of normal CPT and billing models. Freed from financial pressures, providers will be able to refocus their energy on delivering high-quality, real-time care using IoT and remote monitoring solutions.
One thing we can say with certainty as we approach 2021: healthcare will never be the same after COVID-19. The one thing we can predict with certainty is that life in the new decade will be defined by how we respond to the unpredictable.
Anish Sebastian is the CEO of Babyscripts.
