CES 2021: The Digital Health Revolution & What Pharma Should Know

t’s no surprise that this year’s fully virtual CES shined a bright and hopeful spotlight on the future of digital health. Over three days last week, the mega-tech conference packed over 39+ sessions on digital health, led by industry leaders across healthcare & tech companies, providers, consultants, and payers.

Undoubtedly, there is optimism across the industry that we are in the midst of a digital health revolution, accelerated by COVID-19, and the landscape will transform over the next several years. Take today’s current patient experience: it’s beyond fragmented – requiring the need to access information across doctor portals, insurance / pharmacy portals, HSA/FSA logins, consumer apps … the list goes on. The current system is focused on ‘sick care’ and chronic diseases, instead of extended health and wellbeing. “What we’ve learned in the past year is how much of the healthcare system is focused on late-stage disease. When it comes to prevention, there are crickets in the structure,” said Deneen Vojta, Executive Vice President of United Healthcare. Deneen shared the promise of digital health: finally having the data to realize facilitated self-service, improved outcomes, and a decrease in overall costs to the healthcare system.