4 Trends Shaping the Healthcare Industry in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has led the headlines in defining the challenge facing our healthcare systems this year – says Dr Ryan Noach, CEO of Discovery Health.

“We have closely followed and analysed the local and global trajectory of the pandemic and have identified a tipping point for healthcare consumers to access healthcare differently, revealing opportunities for greater efficiencies in the future.”

Four key trends have emerged as currently dominant in shaping the healthcare industry:

1. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted typical healthcare patterns and created discontinuity in the supply and demand of healthcare services.
2. The global focus on patient-centric care is driving demand for improved quality of care and healthcare outcomes.
3. Providers and consumers are increasingly leveraging digital healthcare services and big data capabilities to deliver better healthcare outcomes, more efficiently.
4. In the time of great economic uncertainty, there is a need to focus on broadening the affordability and accessibility of healthcare to as many people as possible.

“These are the tenets that have underpinned Discovery Health’s response to the pandemic and current healthcare landscape as a whole. COVID-19 has demonstrated the need for companies to innovate quickly in a short space of time, with the demand for digital healthcare services, in particular, rising significantly.”

According to Noach Discovery has maintained a rapid pace of innovation across the scheme’s value chain, and regularly lead the market with new technologies, tools and benefits to offer better value, greater quality and enhanced member experience.