Health sector in 2021 will be driven by AI, IoT, say experts

As the turbulent 2020 is coming to an end in a few days the health sector that faced several challenges gears up for the new year. Sharing her thoughts on what 2021 would bring for the health sector, Dr Puja Kapoor, Pediatric Neurologist and co-founder of Continua Kids, says the next year would see tech-driven change led by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

"With telemedicine and telehealth technologies the tracing of chronic illness and their early management will be efficiently done. With the support of artificial intelligence the healthcare providers would easily be able to find the right approach. Also, the number of virtual visits has skyrocketed during the pandemic especially related to mental health, and this will become the future norm. It is predicted that telemedicine will be worth $185.6 billion by 2026," she adds.

Founder of 750ad Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, Shabnum Khan calls 2020 a dramatic year for healthcare start-ups.

She reasons that while the upside to the pandemic for healthcare start-ups was the immediate and vast need of medical supplies and services, the downside was the loss of lives of many healthcare workers.

"On ground start-ups had to work keeping their lives at stake which made it difficult for the healthcare sector. However, the technology driven start-ups harnessing AI and ML in the field of healthcare have seen a drastic boom and 2021 is the year for technology driven healthcare start-ups," she adds.

Khan says the growth trajectory for every start-up has been different and opines that there will be a surge in their number. However, she adds that the economic slowdown will also lead to several start-ups declining after facing losses in 2020.

"We need to understand that 2020 was a year of opportunities for some start-ups in healthcare, edu-tech, fin-tech, companies manufacturing masks and sanitizers, while a rather poor year for others such as clothing brands, entertainment start-ups etc. Several start-ups have even got funding and have made it big amidst the pandemic which clearly shows that the growth trajectory for every start-up has been different this year.

2021 will bring in a plethora of opportunities for start-ups as we are in the intermediate stage i.e. is the solution seeking stage of the pandemic which implies that we will witness growth in the number of start-ups but on the other hand the economic slowdown of the country will also lead to several start-ups receding after facing losses in 2020," she elaborates. For Mita Vinay, founder of Bengaluru based wellness company, Bodhsara, 2020 has seen significant changes in the way people perceive health and wellness.

"The lockdown helped in taking time out to spend on focusing on our health and well-being. This pattern is going to continue in 2021 with even more enthusiasm. The efforts to work on the immunity will be the goal of everyone for the lifetime who faced this Pandemic.

The availability of online classes has opened up the whole new possibilities people can experience from across the world right at their doorsteps. This is going to stay forever, as never before these options were explored in its full capacity," she opines.