New Dance Steps
A few weeks back, Duane and I joined a ceilidh, the raucous Irish or Scottish form of entertainment that involves a lot of arm swinging dances and the shared singing of traditional tunes. We were alone. In our sitting room. But at the end of an hour of missteps and falling out of tune, we were happily exhausted. We had tried something new. Together.
If this was written in February 2020 it would have seemed odd. But at the height of the global pandemic we all know what life looks like, and dancing around our own sitting room is not one of the strangest boredom busting strategies that has been tried. Life in lockdown is an exercise in extremes. Families are bonding or relationships are falling apart. Waistlines are growing thicker or Couch to 5K has become an obsession. Businesses are failing or thriving beyond expectation.
The healthcare technology sector is one that has experienced soaring demand for services such as video consultations and remote patient monitoring. And in the race to test, track and trace, NHSX poured resources into the creation of a contact-tracing app faster than a dancer could spin her partner to the count of eight. Technological ambition doesn’t always yield the required outcome, however. In this case NHSX bowed to the data behemoths Google and Apple who created a collaborative option using Bluetooth monitoring to reach the broadest swathes of the population. Over reaching and choosing the wrong partner will hinder the progress of an ambitious project.
How do businesses of all sizes embrace the agility needed to compete in this quickly paced marketplace? How long will the opportunities to innovate and to achieve expedited approval continue? Technologies that address the long-term effects of COVID-19 and help tackle the backlog of diagnoses and treatments across the NHS will be in demand. Technologies that come to people where they are, such as patient engagement tools and remote training for clinical software systems, will find ready partners. At Cíor we are seeing unprecedented interest in and activity around the health tech market. We believe that those who are bold enough to bring the right partner to the floor will complete the dance.