Covid-19’s aftermath in the Digital Health sector

The impact of the pandemic brought about a transformational change to the way that we all interacted in our daily personal and business lives.

The Healthcare sector was impacted significantly and considerable transformations were seen in service delivery but also patient expectations. The impact of the ‘stay-at-home’ instructions from the Government throughout the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 made routine medical appointments impossible, and this created a demand for remote medical consultations from patients. This demand hasn’t fallen as regulations around COVID-19 have been removed, with the ease and time saving elements of remote medical work being highly beneficial to both practitioners and patients.

The increased role of technology introduces new interconnected and overlapping risks around diagnosis, data and professional responsibility.

COVID-19 and the impact on mental health

One area that perhaps saw the biggest impact of the effects of Covid-19 was mental health and wellness. According to The World Health Organisation (WHO), worldwide mental health problems have increased by 13% as of 2017.[1] It is only logical that a large part of that increase is owed to the pandemic. WHO also reports on estimates indicating that, overall, the pandemic has caused 137.1 additional disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) per 100,000 population for major depressive disorders, and 116.1 per 100,000 population for anxiety disorders.[2]

The impact of this rising level of mental health issues led to a wave of new telehealth start-ups offering mental health related services and advice direct to the consumer.

This explosion in growth of such service comes with significant risks, however. These range from shortcomings of evaluation Apps or technologies, to the possibility of poorly developed chatbots not picking up patient interaction red flags.

Insurance protection

It is essential that businesses offering services in this arena should have adequate and robust protection covering professional services provided and extending to include bodily injury and/or mental health cover. Such protection needs to explicitly include ‘health & tech activities or services’.