The increase of users counting on technology in the past few years, have forced many sectors to shift their offerings into technology-based. With the case of healthcare, several limitations slowed this sector’s adaptability to change. Most of which revolved around the sensitivity of dealing with people’s lives and the regulations around medical practices, not to mention user’s hesitation in relying on their phones as a source of information by both practitioners (doctors) and patients. But can a sector fully reliant on close intervention from a specialized person consider digitization a solution?
As of February 2020 with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global imposed lockdown, people have found it difficult to visit medical facilities. The increasing demand for innovative solutions created opportunities for HealthTech, And telemedicine in specific. Even though services offered by multiple platforms may differ; from primary-care to AI instant diagnoses to developing medical devices etc, they all aim to shift individuals’ dependence to using technology for accessing healthcare services. According to the CB insights Health care report, Q1 2020 Investments in Healthcare have been doubled from Q4 2019, reaching the highest record. Globally the healthcare sector shows an aggregate valuation of $101.5 B, marking a number of 42 healthcare unicorns. In the US alone, the healthcare industry represents $3T in spends, deriving the big techs in the world to take an interest in the industry. As an example, Apple & Google partnered to develop a contact tracing platform that aims to notify users if they’ve come in contact with someone diagnosed with the coronavirus.
For the past years, the MENA region has seen a growth in number of startups providing health and medical services through mobile applications or web-based. According to MAGNiTT’s newly released 2019 Healthcare Venture Investment Report, the Healthcare industry has seen increased investment activity in the MENA region over the last 5 years. With a record high of 31 investment deals, the industry accounted for 6% of all investments in 2019. Furthermore, $21M in funding was raised by MENA-based Healthcare startups, making up 3% of total funding raised in the MENA region in 2019.
Introducing innovation and digitizing is part of Saudi’s 2030 Vision, a health system reliant on technology is the Ministry of Health’s mission. MOH in fact have already developed an application called SEHA allowing its users to obtain online medical consultations from an MOH approved physicians. When looking into Saudi Arabia’s health-tech startups, Sanar, Cura, and many others come to mind. All founded in the past 5 years and their mission is to shift the traditional ways of visiting doctors, getting prescriptions, and facilitating medical services.
The circumstances that Covid-19 cause could be the turning point for the healthcare industry. With it being the force that drove the change and forced consumers to try services out of their comfort zone. Going forward, some of those consumer’s behaviors are bound to evolve into a new culture. And with the industry’s constant evolution, it’ll even push for a change in the underlying systems of this sector to what we hope would lead to leveraging new technologies and revolutionize the way we perceive healthcare.
