How emerging Romanian start-ups are turning Covid-19 challenges into opportunities
The HealthTech market is undergoing a transition from early-stage disruption to practical application and scaling. Health tech innovators played a key role in the industry’s response to COVID-19 and in digitising medical services.…
The HealthTech market is undergoing a transition from early-stage disruption to practical application and scaling. Health tech innovators played a key role in the industry’s response to COVID-19 and in digitising medical services. Moreover, there is growing industry recognition for the value delivered by health tech innovators, and those embracing it will likely be well-positioned for success.
With COVID-19 as a catalyst, the health care industry is now undergoing transformations. Innovation is the new name of the game now, the main goals being to optimize access to medical & prevention services, streamline doctors’ work, improve patient outcomes, reduce human error, and lower the costs through amazing web and mobile experiences.
The adoption of these solutions skyrocketed in 2020 as patients, companies, and health services providers increasingly relied on digital health technologies for delivering care during the pandemic, setting the stage for continued growth and innovation in 2021.
Here’s an overview of the state of digital transformation in healthcare:
Telemedicine - on-demand healthcare
When you think ‘on-demand,’ you think about consumers who want things at their own convenience, on their own time, and when it’s about healthcare: when they need it the most.
Healthcare is shifting toward a consumer-driven model that requires streamlined access to specialised doctors. In the on-demand healthcare model, patients ask medical queries as needed – using the smartphone, after hours, during weekends, and much earlier than it would be via scheduling a traditional check-up. When considering telemedicine services, Medic Chat is a great example of an innovator from the Romanian ecosystem.
“As millennials, we became accustomed to hi-tech solutions like Uber for transport or Airbnb for accommodation. It just felt wrong that access to a doctor would have to be so difficult, and so we began to question why it had to be this way. We quickly realised we were not alone and there was no fundamental reason why you could not use your smartphone to get medical advice. Consequently, we decided to create Medic Chat with the mission to enable anyone in the world to have quick and easy access to the best health advice available.” says Cosmin Dumitrache, co-founder of Medic Chat.
The importance of big data in healthcare
Empowered by big data, healthcare professionals can better interpret and contextualize patient records, enabling new levels of understanding. The ability to understand how a patient will respond to a specific treatment enables clinicians to lower the error rate for choosing the most efficient medication – thus better containing the illness and even increase the chances of surviving, and to improve treatments through investigating possible drug combinations & developing new treatment schemes. In Romania, big data is changing the way doctors are treating cancer patients through Oncochain, a startup that aims to improve the quality of oncological care.
