Our Digital Health Renaissance

As part of my Master's thesis project at the Medical College of Georgia in 2002, I created an educational animation explaining the provenance and development of Bubonic Plague. The Black Death, as it was known, killed millions in Europe and Asia in the 14th century. Still today perhaps 2000 cases are reported annually. The severity and life-altering nature of that devastation more than 600 years ago instigated people to start thinking differently - about medicine and art in particular. This wave of expanded ideas brought on what would eventually be known as the Renaissance. You can read the brilliant writeup of this in the New Yorker Annals of History article by Lawrence Wright.

We are now living through another devastating pandemic, and we have an opportunity to come out on the other side with a "Digital Health Renaissance," given that virtual and remote care is in many countries still the safest option. Telemedicine has already seen a huge uptick in consultations. By the end of March, the area where I live in north-eastern Spain had seen a flipping of care delivery with 85% of consultations happening via telephone or e-consult online. In my opinion this would have been useful starting years ago - wait times for doctors appointments can be months. But the value and need for Digital Health solutions is now simply indisputable.

The Italian Renaissance took some years to evolve, but we needn't wait. And I don't think we will. It would be a wonderful thing to reduce flights globally and cut carbon emissions, pay doctors for care of patients no matter where that care took place, and see people leading healthier lives because a few thousand will bike more and a few thousand others follow a prescribed Digital Therapeutic product protocol for their COPD or diabetes.

European countries recognise the value of these kinds of regulated evidence-based products.

Germany will start reimbursing for prescribed DTx and other patient-facing digital health products (known as DiGA in Germany) by the end of 2020. The Belgian government is funding their first digital health product which helps with knee and hip replacement rehabilitation; and more will soon enter the system. France as well has just approved national financing for a digital health tool for remote monitoring of lung cancer patients. Indeed, from a pandemic perspective, requiring these patients to travel to a doctor's office now seems somewhat cuckoo.

The 21st Century Renaissance is starting.

Get in touch if you would like to know how your healthcare system can take part.