Digital Business Forum: Digital Health Coming of Age

Kearney’s Digital Business Forum (DBF) brings together C-suite executives and digital experts from the world's most iconic corporations to address the challenges of digital disruption and their transformative impact on global business. Digital and technology have always been the buzz words in organizations and whilst there was always a need for them, there was never such an urgency until 2020, and even more so for the health industry. Within days of the WHO declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, the healthcare industry globally was being re-imagined: from hospitals being redesigned and created overnight to 3D printing of personal protective equipment. Whilst the world went into shutdown, the healthcare industry went into overdrive, and the clock was ticking. Back in April 2019, Bernardo Mariano, the chief information officer at the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that “Digital health is not a silver bullet.” Whilst at the time he was correct, fast forwards 11 months and digital health was exactly that: from the rapid development of telemedicine to self-assessment tools and healthcare management apps. With individuals now wanting more ownership and understanding of their healthcare journey and telehealth becoming more accepted, the question arises of what the next-generation digital healthcare will look like? From open source to ML and AI, digital health is entering a new phase of maturity.