Impact of COVID-19 on Public Health: Innovation in Healthcare Technology

COVID-19 pandemic remains one of the biggest public health issues according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Its impact in terms of both human and economic costs reflects the consequences of the slow initial response and many shortcomings of healthcare systems around the world. Nevertheless, the pressing need to combat the virus paved the way for the rapid development and implementation of new and existing healthcare technologies at a large scale. This was further facilitated by the prompt response from the government, which relieved regulatory policies around these technologies. Social distancing and self-isolation requirements largely accelerated the adoption of telehealth into routine medical practice, with its usage increasing 78-fold in April 2020 compared to February 2020. This report will start by highlighting the key lessons learnt from this pandemic and their significance in the context of public health. We will then provide a general overview of telehealth and its advantages, before moving on to the description of the current market and investment trends in telehealth and how these changed as a result of the pandemic. The report will finish with a discussion of novel technologies focusing on telemedicine, teletherapy & telepsychiatry, telepharmacy, and remote patient monitoring.