Recent announcements reiterate the growing role of operators in digital health. In Belgium, Proximus NXT is working with a major hospital to develop a private 5G network pilot project, while e& and Burjeel Holdings (a healthcare service provider in MENA) announced new collaborations to advance telemedicine services and remote medical care. Meanwhile, Vodafone UK and eConsult Health are collaborating on a digital triage solution that will help reduce patient waiting times and streamline care for patients with urgent needs.
GSMA Intelligence recently increased its forecasts for the IoT healthcare market to reflect fast-growing use of digital technologies (a trend accelerated by the pandemic). Health and fitness is a major driver of wearables adoption, and IoT devices and connectivity are increasingly used by healthcare professionals to monitor and perform a range of activities. The new initiatives are tangible examples of progress with digital health. Importantly, they speak to the magnitude of use cases that can benefit from digital technology across all the important components of a healthcare system: accessibility, quality of service and efficiency. With mobile taking a central role in the future of health, an increasing number of operators are helping healthcare companies and hospitals digitise their operations and solutions – a trend that will continue in 2024 and beyond.