Healthcare has faced unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, governments, clinics, hospitals, and frontline workers were confronted with additional pressures of tracing and tracking new infections, treating COVID-19 patients while managing their usual duties, respecting social distance rules, and maintaining the flow of medical supplies. This increased the strain on an already under-resourced system.
Image Credit: ASUS Computer International
Following the pandemic, observers from various industries have remarked that a decade’s worth of innovation occurred in just ten months. PwC Singapore’s Health Industries Leader has also said that the pandemic expedited the emergence of what he terms the New Health Economy—or the future of healthcare.
This future is without a doubt digital. Healthcare institutions in many countries are embracing telehealth services, diagnostics, digital therapeutics, remote data analytics, and patient monitoring to reduce the gap between patient and provider, providing personalized, proactive, and higher-quality healthcare. If the pandemic has shown anything, it is the massive potential of digital technologies to help us combat future challenges.
What it means to be resilient
As we move out of the COVID-19 pandemic, how can it be ensured that healthcare is future-proofed? New challenges will likely emerge again, and we require systems that
