During the COVID-19 pandemic, the global health industry realized the necessity of going into digital space.
Despite some implementation difficulties, the market was set to follow an upward trend in the next five to six years, growing at double-digit rates yearly across the globe. North America appears to be a trendsetter on the digital healthcare arena; the market in the Unites States was forecasted to grow even faster than the global average between 2021 and 2025. As such, to date, according to a 2021 survey, digital tools such as telemedicine are used by US consumers mostly to visit a psychologist or psychiatrist, a pediatrician, or an urgent care center. In Canada, “Receiving professional medical advice by telephone”, “Making appointments electronically”, and “Accessing websites, mobile apps or interactive online tolls” were the top digital health use cases at the end of 2020 and according to the same survey cited in the new yStats.com market report, around a third of Canadians said that they do not see any barriers to use digital health services. On the European landscape, Estonia, select Nordic countries, Austria, Germany, and the UK were considered as role models for digital health innovation by healthcare professionals surveyed in 2020. Despite this, both in some countries in the region, “Funding and costs” was seen as the main challenge in digital health services adoption and their further developments, along with “IT security & data privacy”, and “Integration within and across organizations”. In Asia, the digital health market growth rate between 2020 and 2025 was estimated to be above the global average, led by select major markets, such as China and India. Furthermore, remote patient support technologies that include telemedicine and remote monitoring, were expected to have the highest market value in Asia in 2025, as compared to other digital health solutions. However, the highest growth rate is to expect in the sector of digital supply therapies to patients through digital pharmacies, for example.