Investments in Telehealth are Expected to Decrease

Healthcare industry leaders around the globe expect to see a decrease in the amount of money invested in emerging technologies over the next 12 months due to current economic conditions.

According to a GlobalData survey, 39% of the healthcare leaders expect the decrease because of inflation and rising costs.

Results from the 10-minute survey were published in the report, "Digital Transformation and Emerging Technology in the Healthcare Industry – 2022 Edition." It included 114 GlobalData Pharma clients and prospects whose data were collected from September 14, 2022, to October 10, 2022. The objective was to track the progress of digital transformation in the healthcare industry, examine the business preparedness to embrace innovations, and uncover the current and future technology-related investment trends.

Results reveal 24% of healthcare industry leaders believed there would be a minor decrease in investment in emerging technologies during the next 12 months, while 15% of them are prepared to see a moderate to significant decrease in investment.

With only a mere 6% of leaders believing there will be a significant decrease, 34% believe there will be no impact at all and 5%, as a matter of fact feel there will be an increase in investments.

“While COVID-19 may have forced businesses to implement emerging technologies to ensure business continuity during the pandemic, increasing inflation may discourage or even set back investment in the technologies," Elton Kwok, market research manager in Pharma at GlobalData, said in a release. "With ongoing financial disruptions, it is not surprising to see healthcare industry professionals being more reserved regarding near-future investments in digitalization."

Kwok added that "despite financial constraints, halting investments in emerging technologies and slowing down progress on digital transformation is not a strategy that all companies in the industry want to adopt.”