A Revolution in Digital Healthcare

For the last decade, the digital healthcare sector has remained largely overlooked. But as COVID-19 rages on, and more people stay home amid fears of contracting or spreading the coronavirus, it has accelerated a societal shift that is changing how people work, live, and interact with one another – including virtual visits with the doctor. COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated the shift towards telehealth as consumer demand for ‘virtual’ delivery of care has skyrocketed. It has essentially squeezed a decade’s worth of industry growth into a relatively short time span of just 1-2 years. Although early investors in telehealth companies such as WELL Health Technologies and CloudMD Software Services have already experienced tremendous returns, a deeper look at the economic and digital trends in healthcare are suggesting that this run is still in its ‘early innings’.  Analysts are projecting the digital healthcare market to grow from $106B to $639B, over the next 5 years; which equates to 28.5% compound annual revenue growth. The digital health space in Canada remains vastly under-penetrated relative to other developed countries as doctors remain well behind in providing technology-driven offerings to patients. However, COVID-19 has changed things for good. The federal government is starting to pay attention to this growing industry, recently earmarking $13.4 million to fund three Toronto-based companies and an innovation hub aimed at helping support digital health treatments, including telehealth services. Barry Billings, senior advisor of digital health at the MaRS Discovery District, expects telehealth services to become even more ubiquitous once diagnostic tools like blood pressure monitors or biometric devices become cheaper and more commonplace.  That would give doctors more real-time patient data to work with, resulting in more efficient and reliable care, he said. It can also be predictive and help to identify potential health issues before it's too late, he added.  **_"In 10 years from now, they're not going to call it 'telemedicine' anymore. They're just going to call it 'medicine'."_** Looking for telehealth companies to invest in? Below is a list of the main competitors in the Canadian telehealth space.