Export opportunity – USA digital and health technology

USA – digital and health technology opportunity summary 

Telemedicine has witnessed explosive growth in the USA since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Virtual appointments have become the norm. Hospitals and physicians’ offices had to react quickly to implement telemedicine platforms, with many relying on services like Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype or FaceTime as an immediate solution. As a result, new and more sophisticated technologies to enhance services and make patient data more secure will continue to be in high demand. 

AI (artificial intelligence) tools for hospital administrative and clinical operations can also help healthcare organisations optimise their workflow and cut the administrative burden, as well as reducing clinician burnout. Hospitals across the USA are either already using AI or looking to do more with it. Hospitals have numerous processes that are lengthy and complex, and automation would save both time and money. In fact, any tool that can help reduce time and complexity for both hospital staff and clinicians is in high demand. 

Another area of high growth is Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM). RPM uses digital technologies to collect medical and other forms of health data from individuals in one location before securely and electronically transmitting it to healthcare providers in a different location for assessment and recommendations. 

Scale of export opportunity

The remote patient monitoring market is expected to reach $31 billion USD by the end of 2023, increasing from $16 billion USD in 2017, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12%. 

In early 2020, at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, virtual health appointments jumped from 134 in January and February to 30,944 from 13 March to 27 April. Mount Carmel Health System had 19 virtual health visits in March and April 2019, compared with 19,532 in March and April 2020. 

Automation within the health sector supported by AI can reduce administrative time and human error, making operations more efficient overall. One of the key areas in which automation can help is within a hospital’s revenue cycle, in particular workflows marked with repetitive, high-volume, rules-based tasks. 

Company suitability

Scottish companies best positioned to win this type of business will fit with some of the following: 

• Companies specialising in remote communication between doctors, patients and caregivers
• Companies with AI tools for organising, including clinical notes and files, scheduling and planning appointments and operations, revenue cycle management and active asset management, benefits or claims and care management and transition 
• Developers of other AI tools and predictive analytics for instant triage and symptom checking, personalised patient experience, delivery of treatment plans or insights and identifying disease precursors
• Developers of devices, technologies and apps that enable the storage and transmission of patient data across disparate platforms to alert physicians on patient status
• Companies with an established client base and experience in the UK health and care system