The Corona inflection point for dHealth: 5 things in that will never be the same

It is now clear - for the Digital Health world, the Covid-2019 pandemic was an inflection point. The emergency has created an unprecedented willingness to introduce innovation and overcome what used to be perceived as insurmountable barriers. As I presented last week in the People and Computers Corona Digital Health 2020 virtual conference (thanks Yehuda Konfortes for organizing!), here are some areas in which we have hopefully passed the point-of-no-return:

Point-of-Care diagnostics are hot. It almost goes without saying these days, that modern medicine will increasingly rely on accessible testing for screening, diagnosis and condition management. Speedy time-to-results is a crucial element. We have seen a surge interest in our portfolio company Sight Diagnostics in this context. The Covid-2019 closure regime made a great case study - and until a vaccine is developed, rapid, accessible diagnostics will constitute the main weapon in our arsenal.

Tele-everything. From now on, for more and more contexts, remote treatment will be considered a viable option to treat patients and manage their conditions. The Corona crash course has taught payors, providers, practitioners and patients to overcome their respective inhibitions.

An opportunity for Digital Therapeutics. The unique circumstances of the pandemic have also enabled a potential fresh view of this genre of digital solutions, namely, apps - with or without devices - that could be prescribed and reimbursed as a legitimate part of a treatment. Those based on sound science and a well-defined value proposition, such as our portfolio company DayTwo, are exploring surprising new exciting opportunities as we speak.

Public health mining big data. The quest to query gems in the piles of accumulated health data has taken several turns in the recent decades, and some have proven more useful than others. Recently, with proven success stories of the epidemiological work and the fact that the Covid-2019 challenges have drawn many brilliant data scientists to this domain, our bet is that we will see this year "a second wave" of innovation.

Ageing at home. It would seem that we all now understand better that the "ageing" segment relates directly or indirectly to all of us. Also, it is clear that for many, home is the safest and most efficient point-of-care. Covid-2019 has driven a pretty broad definition of the segment and the closures have highlighted critical services that need to be provided. I expect new offerings in this space to address the needs in new ways and inject new vitality into this domain.