How far can digital health drive efficiency?
Five years ago, the thought of online triage appointments and remote monitoring apps would have caused the majority of the population to throw their hands up in disgust. But roll forward to 2022 and it seems we’re increasingly comfortable with the role that technology plays in the medical profession, a sector in its own right known as Remote Patient Monitoring (“RPM”).
The boom of the sector is enormous.
According to Research and Markets, the Global RPM systems market is projected to be worth over $1.7 billion by 2027, up nearly 128% from the opportunity that the market currently represents.
The transformation in acceptance of virtual appointments and wider digital health services was made possible in the UK as our cultural norms switched overnight on the 23rd of March 2020 as the UK entered its first Lockdown and with it, the NHS almost shutting its doors entirely.
Thankfully, the NHS is very much back open and senior NHS leaders along with government officials are continuing to embrace new technologies that can both help reduce the backlog and improve overall efficiencies in delivering patient care.
One to watch
MediBioSense is one such firm revolutionising the future of healthcare through medically approved wearable technology and integrated healthcare applications.
The firm’s technology allows for real-time monitoring of the following clinical physiological data: Heart, Rate, ECG, Respiration Rate, Temperature, Blood Oxygen (Sp02) and Accelerometer.
CEO and founder of MediBiosense, Simon Beniston said - “To continuously monitor patient vital signs every second, 24/7 has created a new paradigm in healthcare that has not existed before. The ability to monitor in real-time, know an issue before it happens, analyse real medical data and reduce the cost and demands on healthcare services we believe is a true game changer.” The future of Healthcare is here today.
The Covid19 pandemic forced the accelerated adoption and realisation of RPM into daily healthcare by necessity. This disrupted wakeup call quite literally changed how healthcare was provided and how it would be provided going forward. We are seeing global widescale initiatives in RPM with buzzwords such as ‘virtual wards’ and ‘hospital at home’ being hot topics. We are already seeing patients discharged from hospital post-operative 10 days early with real-time monitoring undertaken centrally with significant increased results in patient recovery, wellbeing and less readmission rates, freeing up much needed hospital beds.
Telephone appointments with GP’s are now the norm and they will be accompanied more and more by medical wearable technology going forward, allowing doctors to view live vital signs without the need of a visit.
Globally we are seeing heavy investment into remote healthcare services, with global companies such as Amazon, Google and Apple gearing up to disrupt the healthcare market even further. It could be envisioned your future GP/Doctor maybe actually a global corporate and not say the NHS with prescriptions delivered to your door 30 minute after your online appointment, all included in your annual ‘prime’ subscription.”
Oliver Duke, Principal Healthcare Consultant at RMG said “We are experiencing first-hand the pressures of continuing staff shortages across the NHS network and witnessing a growing chasm of health inequality across the globe. Government policy needs to pay greater attention to the digital health sector so that opportunities to deploy technology to improve patient outcomes are at the forefront of the agenda. RMG is privileged to partner with businesses in this space on a daily basis; with appropriate investment from the private sector and public backing from government officials, digital health holds the key to resolving both the NHS backlog and reducing global health inequality.”
