i3 - January/February 2021 - 42

Business

By Jim Harris

T EC H TACT I C S

COVID Crisis is
Transforming
Health Care

 T 

he COVID crisis is turbo charging the
adoption of telemedicine and transforming
health care. At the end of 2018, digital health
was a $3 billion industry in the U.S. and grew in 2020
to $250 billion, according to McKinsey & Company. The
COVID pandemic is driving almost 100X growth.

UK's Babylon Health

Babylon Health, located in the UK,
allows patients to connect with a doctor
via video conferencing and uses artificial
intelligence (AI) to prompt the doctor
on which questions to ask. With each
answer, the system re-calculates the
probability of what the patient's medical
problem could be. The AI also monitors
the facial reaction of each patient -
alerting the doctor to changes. The system, for example might warn, " The
patient looks concerned, " to which the
doctor might say " You look worried " and
the patient might reply, " Well it sounds
pretty serious. " The doctor might then
say, " Well if it's condition X, then it can
be easily treated with antibiotics. "
AI is in its infancy and, as it continues
to exponentially improve with enhanced
computing power and algorithms, this
will further drive the adoption of telehealth. Babylon is valued at $2 billion -
not bad for a start up founded in 2013.

It Is What We Access

Mental health is the most under
reported crisis of the pandemic and is a
major driver behind sustained virtual
care engagement.
Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce,
revealed that a staggering 36% of the
company's 50,000 employees are experiencing mental health challenges during
the pandemic - and that's in a company
that's been growing during the crisis.
What then are the rates of mental health
issues for those who face job loss, financial difficulties, and health care worries?
A staggering 31% of all virtual health
care visits are for mental health. The
pandemic is isolating. Many people with
non-COVID medical problems are not
seeking health care because they fear
going to health care facilities. Many suffer in silence but could benefit from
remote assistance.

Technology Enabling
Transformation

Some smartphones now
have 108 megapixels (MP)
cameras and Qualcomm's
Snapdragon 865 processor supports up
to 200MP image sensors. With such
high-resolution photography, a picture
of an eye can be analyzed using AI to

Jim Harris is the author of the Blindsided which focuses on disruptive innovation.
Follow him @JimHarris or email jim@jimharris.com
42

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determine the gender of the individual, whether they are a smoker or
their risk of heart disease to enable
remote diagnosis via smartphones.
We are seeing the medicalization
of the smartphone. A University of
Cambridge app can listen to a
patient's coughing to predict
whether they have COVID.
Wearables too are changing health
care. Apple's Series 4 watch incorporates an ECG function so that a
patient's heart rate and rhythm can
be monitored, setting off an alarm
when abnormalities that could lead
to a heart attack are detected.

Breaking Barriers

The COVID crisis is breaking down
the barriers that have slowed telehealth adoption. U.S. health care
spending is more than $3.6 trillion
representing 18% of U.S. GDP. The
COVID crisis is forcing innovation
enabling better health care outcomes
at lower cost by eliminating waste and
inefficiency. Studies peg health care
system waste and inefficiency at $760
billion to $935 billion a year. So out of
this terrible COVID crisis is coming a
benefit. As the saying goes, " A crisis is
a terrible thing to waste. "

2021

A range of sessions will cover the latest
advances in digital health at CES 2021.

Andrey Suslov/Getty Images

Digital health services were used by 11% of
U.S. patients in 2019 and during the pandemic, that surged to 46% in 2020. The
adoption of telemedicine shifted into
hyper-drive, with U.S. virtual health care
interactions on pace to top a billion in
2020, according to Forrester Research.

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

12/9/20 3:28 PM
https://www.ces.tech/
i3 - January/February 2021

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