The 2020 pandemic has seen healthcare provision impacted on multiple levels across the globe. Millions of patients have avoided visits to A&E, encountered fewer specialist referrals, and experienced disruption in critical care treatments. Understandably, traditional healthcare systems, staff, and resources have been overstretched and under pressure.
Given this context, the greater use of digital health technology has been crucial in enabling care to continue for many, with virtual care in the form of telemonitoring, apps, and AI relieving pressure on already-strained healthcare systems.
Our latest report, ‘The Growth of Digital Health in the COVID-19 Era’, looks at the disruption and innovation COVID-19 has brought about. To understand the changes, we surveyed 4,000 US and UK consumers; half of whom have chronic or long-term illnesses.
The findings uncovered how patients’ behavior has changed towards seeking in-person medical care during the pandemic, mainly due to fear of catching COVID-19. Our data estimates that around 10m Britons and 80m Americans have actively avoided seeking in-person medical care since the onset of the pandemic, with many canceling appointments and putting off routine tests due to the fear of exposure to the virus.
The research not only raises valid concerns regarding the long-term impact medical avoidance of this scale could have on people’s health, but sheds light on a growing appetite among patients for digital health solutions in future.
Without a doubt, COVID-19 has interrupted our lives and changed how we approach healthcare provision. Through necessity and urgency, healthcare systems have taken many meaningful steps in adopting new digital technologies this year. Now that more people are experiencing the benefits of digital healthcare the industry must continue to look for valuable digital solutions, and meet patient expectations, well beyond the pandemic.
To meet those expectations will require healthcare providers, medtech, and pharma companies to facilitate the progression of digital health, and land upon a new - potentially much better - hybrid approach to healthcare: one that delivers remote, digital care alongside in-person care.
Download our new report:The Growth of Digital Health in the COVID-19 Era