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Much has changed in the new post-Covid era of healthcare provision.  How do healthcare systems address the challenges of remote management of patients that require one to one support and how can MedTech help address some of the fundamental challenges?

HIGH WYCOMBE, England, June 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The unprecedented health crisis caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic arguably led to changes in the provision of healthcare services that would have taken place anyway.  However, the crisis sped up these changes exponentially. 

There was no compelling reason for GP consultations to be in person.  Yet before Covid most were[1].  Out of necessity, the pandemic turbo charged more remote healthcare diagnostics, telephone and video consultations with healthcare staff, higher levels of self-diagnosis and faster innovation in the development of new standards of care for patients with Covid, including increasingly non-pharmaceutical interventions.  The challenge now is to continue to accelerate innovation further in all areas.

The evolution of healthcare services to use more technology and rely less on face-to-face contact was a clear direction of travel even before Covid.  This was driven by several factors: the growing ageing population combined with the increasing capabilities of healthcare systems to help patients manage and treat chronic illness, both put increased pressure on healthcare funding.  The development of new and innovative technological solutions to supplement and support pharmaceutical interventions enables healthcare systems to manage this demand more effectively. 

This is a one-way path: patients will increasingly become responsible for managing larger elements of their own wellbeing.  This will be welcomed by many, for whom the process of physically attending a consultation – either at a GP surgery or hospital – seemed unnecessary.

Complex conditions

Despite this, healthcare systems need to find ways to accommodate those that are unwilling or unable to adapt to self-service systems of healthcare. 

Particularly vulnerable are the elderly, partly because they will struggle to adapt to new processes and may not be as digitally literate or have the skills to access online or remote healthcare systems.  While internet usage among the over 75s has grown rapidly in the last decade, only half of over 75s are regular internet users[2]. Those with complex conditions that are hard to heal are also likely to struggle.  These are often the same group of patients.