Telcos eye opportunity in healthcare digitization

The recent launch of telehealth initiatives by several major communications service providers (CSPs) is coinciding with a worldwide rise in spend on IT and digitization by the healthcare sector and a growing public acceptance of remote care. The question for CSPs is which corners of the telehealth market they can successfully target amid national and regional variations in the structure and needs of healthcare service providers.

Forays by CSPs into healthcare are nothing new. Several telcos have explored telehealth services with varying degrees of success over the last 10 to 15 years.

However, there is a sense this time could be different. The Covid-19 pandemic has shaken up a sector that has been slow to digitally transform, forcing healthcare providers to shift towards digitally enabled remote services.

“The pandemic has accelerated telehealth adoption and changed the conversation around what patient care will look like moving forward,” according to Tami Erwin, CEO, Verizon Business.

It also appears to have loosened purse strings, particularly in the US and Europe. Gartner predicts an average growth in IT spending within the industry worldwide of 6.5% compared to 2020 in its Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending for the Healthcare Provider Market, Worldwide, 2019-2025, 1Q21 Update. This will bring total spending to $122.5 billion in constant US dollars by the end of 2021 for the healthcare industry worldwide, according to Gartner. This translates to $7.48 billion of new spending in constant US dollars, where North America accounts for 47% and Western Europe for 23%.

Tailoring digital healthcare to regional needs

Orange, T-Mobile, Verizon, Du and AT&T are among the CSPs to have recently announced new healthcare partnerships and services. Orange has launched two initiatives, each addressing a different regional market.

The first is in Africa, where Orange has teamed with Axa Assurance in Morocco to acquire a majority stake in DabaDoc, a platform company that digitalizes access to healthcare in Africa.

Orange and Axa Assurance will help DabaDoc expand into countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with Orange describing the investment as “confirming its ambition to be the leading multi-services digital operator in the region.”

The second is in Europe where Orange has partnered with pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, insurance company, Generali, and technology consultancy, Capgemini, to launch an accelerator program for healthcare start-ups called Future4Care with the aim of creating the biggest telehealth innovation ecosystem in Europe. Future4Care will support around 100 European start-ups, providing them with access to expertise in regulation, ethics, data, AI and business development through a digital platform and a 6,000 square meter facility in Paris.

Whereas in Africa, one of the immediate benefits of telehealth is to bring services to areas where provisioning is poor or patchy, in Europe Orange can hope to harness ecosystem innovation around 5G to provide services such as home care to an ageing population.

“5G is a technological rupture…which is going to offer fantastic opportunities for remote health,” said Stephane Richard, CEO of Orange, speaking at the press launch of Future4Care.

In the Middle East, meanwhile, Du of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Phillips “to accelerate the critical, data-driven transformation of healthcare in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in support of the Dubai Health Strategy 2021”. In particular the goal is to deliver predictive analytics, data visualization, and reporting capabilities to healthcare workers.

In the US, Verizon has launched BlueJeans to securely connect patients and healthcare providers via an easy to use application across any device.

Verizon said BlueJeans “is just the beginning in what we see as the future of telehealth, especially when you consider the innovation that will come from 5G mobility, broadband and cloud capabilities.”

Also in the US, T-Mobile partnered in April with Zyter, a digital health platform, to provide virtual healthcare solutions, including telehealth and remote patient monitoring and care team collaboration.

And AT&T is offering remote patient monitoring through a partnership with Cherish Health, which has developed a wearable biosensor device to monitor Covid-19 patients.

Much remains to be done as the healthcare sector looks to usher in multiple changes to improve the usability and accessibility of services and drive innovation. Gartner describes the healthcare sector as being “enmeshed in, and defined by, legacy IT systems and code.” This could create opportunity for CSPs.

“There’s a lot more money flowing into the healthcare system that could be captured by CSPs during 2021,” according to Gartner.

To learn more about potential roles for CSPs in digitizing healthcare, check out this related TM Forum report, 5G for healthcare.