Video transcript
Camilla-Oxhamre Cruse: 2020 was a year that made us rethink everything; how we live, how we communicate, how we work, and last year had even more profound effect on how we think about healthcare.
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic 2020 was a year of significantly increased awareness of the importance of public health, and we have seen evidence that our healthcare system is central to every aspect of our society from economic security to national security. COVID-19 revealed how vulnerable our healthcare system and its need for structural and technological transformation.
Our healthcare system is among the last of the big industries to embrace digital technologies. While other sectors have mostly digitalized their processes, progress in healthcare has been very slow. In fact, the fax machine would no longer exist if it was not for our healthcare system.
2020's proving to be the tipping point that sweeping changes are now possible, leaps in adoption of virtual care, telemedicine, and AI solutions are visible but other areas are progressing as well. The value of high-quality accessible health and big data is now well understood at every level of the healthcare system, and we now all see the enormous value of digitalizing healthcare for all stakeholders from individual patients to doctors in hospitals to the entire society.
Over the next decade, healthcare will be centered to prevent disease rather than solely focusing on treating disease. Patients will receive personalized health solutions that are integrated in the daily lives with various digital solutions. And all of this will be enabled by data and algorithms and provided within the healthcare system that is organized and regulated in an entirely new way.
Alongside this overhaul of the healthcare system tectonic shift in global, public and private sector budgets are expected. Trillions of dollars will be spent differently than they are today. There will be more spent on prevention of disease diagnostic AA enable and analytical tools and various digital solutions interacting with the patients. And as a global pandemic has proven to be catalyst for reshaping healthcare, venture capitalists are now reaching deep into the pockets.
And in 2020 they delivered a record level of funding to medical related development. In fact, healthcare startups raised a whooping 81 billion dollars in 2020, a 50% increase from 2019. Venture funding is often an important barometer of innovators valid proposition and long-term success. The funding was sprinkled across sector ranging from telemedicine and medical AI solutions, medical equipment in an effort to seize the moment and shake up an industry that has been notoriously resistant to change.
And while the aging population has already been putting significant pressure on the healthcare system, the pandemic seems to finally created fertile terrain to allow investors to believe that widespread disruption is within reach. And as the healthcare market continues to grow, investors will look for opportunities among companies that provide improved quality, decrease healthcare cost, and a better experience for patient and caregivers.