Digital health drives innovations such as life-changing therapy, medical devices and more. However, before a company can receive insurance coverage, they need to start with innovation.

Pros and cons of using VA

A huge driver of adoption in the digital health sector is ease of use for patients and prescribers. When a digital solution for health is designed with a patient experience in mind, the demand will be almost non-existent.

Careful consideration of the user’s needs is key to digital health adoption, especially with complicated medical data.

New treatments are not adopted if they complicate workflow for healthcare providers or if they complicate patient utilization.

Ease of use is related to the value as well. Healthcare can be incredibly expensive, even with insurance coverage. Showing cheap or affordable prices can show the value of a treatment and make it appealing. Both physicians and patients will be less likely to adopt a treatment if the price is not reasonable.

Value goes both ways - without an affordable cost, physicians may not try out new treatments for their patients or encourage use for themselves. Patients will also perceive the lack of affordability difficult and less desirable than other alternatives - this reduces demand and adoption.

Potential impacts of telehealth on healthcare

In the past two years, because of lockdowns due to the scare of pandemic issues, quality advancements on various industries has taken place.

With telehealth, patients are gaining the skills needed to improve safe access to healthcare services.

The expanded reimbursement for these services has opened the door to more innovation.

Digital health is advancing at a faster pace by making sure patients are receiving the care they deserve without requiring constant hospital visits. These advancements have also been made possible because of our society's ever-present need to keep people out of the hospital setting.

Patients can help drive adoption of digital health because people make good evidence and the opinion of the individual. Patients have to use the technology in order to see it's effectiveness.

Providers are often swayed by the opinions of their patients, who actively want to explore new treatments and therapies.

New digital health solutions need to take into account that patients are becoming increasingly informed and have expectations in regards to their health care.

It’s no longer sufficient just to provide a solution and hope that the prescribers will adopt it - you need to make sure the patient understands it and wants it as well.

Digital health innovations are on the rise, due to a multitude of factors: coming together of telehealth, remote care and consumerisation, as well as patients taking more control over their healthcare. When digital health solutions meet certain criteria, they have a good chance of wide scale adoption.