Healthcare without hospitals: The pandemic is likely to accelerate the global shift to take healthcare out of its traditional setting. The covid-19 experience unmasked major deficiencies and inflexibility in our facility-based healthcare system, and is allowing providers to reimagine and transform how we receive care to rely more on technology and advanced logistics.

Telehealth: Around the world and right here in Egypt, the pandemic has fueled the emergence of telehealth services which allow patients to receive diagnosis over a phone call with a doctor and in some cases get the medicine delivered to them at home as well. McKinsey research shows that telehealth providers have seen patients increase 50-175x in the US since the beginning of the pandemic, potentially leading to USD 250 bn of revenues in the future.

Artificial intelligence, point-of-care diagnostics, and wearable biometric monitoring: These core technologies will help transport healthcare outside of the hospital, make it more affordable, and pave the way for faster detection. AI will help to democratize medical care by using large amounts of patient data and best-practice evidence to guide diagnosis and treatment. Point of care diagnostics using biochips or other technologies facilitate better disease diagnosis, monitoring, and management, reducing costs and accelerating access to appropriate treatments. And wearable biometric monitoring devices will allow patients and medical providers to remotely monitor their medical status, allowing for safe medical care at home or in other decentralized care sites.

Let’s talk Egypt: Covid-19 has shown that changing societal, environmental, demographic, and technological patterns are straining global health systems capacity and running the risk that they become unfit, Egyptian doctor Mohamed Kamel writes in the Alexandria Journal of Medicine. Kamel says that integrating more digital technologies such as telehealth, mobile apps, sensors, and rehabilitative robotics into the country’s healthcare system will be critical in addressing health challenges coming out of the pandemic. The use of technology is just a part of a large-scale plan by Kamel to overhaul the country’s healthcare system, which would see more financing, an end to market fragmentation, and a rethink of how medical staff are taught and trained.