MASSACHUSETTS - Digital Health is possibly the most prominent of the technology-driven trends the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically accelerated. The concepts of remote patient monitoring, understanding the social determinants of health, and continuous patient data collection and analysis for early detection, ongoing interaction and intervention and the use of artificial intelligence  to do all that and more are not novel. But before coronavirus, “remote patient management was nice to have,” Yossi Bahagon, MD said. “During COVID-19 it became a must-have. We all understand today that digital health solutions that are patient-centric will become part of mainstream medical routine.”

Bahagon is a practicing family physician, as well as a serial digital health entrepreneur, the founding managing partner of the digital health-focused Qure Ventures, and a special expert advisor to the World Health Organization. He is also the chairman of Sweetch, which he co-founded in 2014 after establishing and leading the digital health division of Clalit, Israel’s largest health maintenance organization. Convinced that “the patient resource is the most underutilized,” Bahagon wants to use AI and behavioral science to help patients with existing chronic conditions and those with early indications of developing them.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 90 percent of annual healthcare spending in the United States is on chronic and mental health conditions. The total costs in 2016 for direct healthcare treatment for chronic health conditions in the US totaled US$1.1 trillion, equal to 5.8 percent of US gross domestic product (GDP). When the indirect costs of lost economic productivity are included, the total costs of chronic diseases in the US increase to US$3.7 trillion. The total losses associated with chronic conditions over the period 2010–2030 are projected to be US$7.7 trillion for China, US$3