Driving Positive Impact Within the Care-Tech Sector

There is no question that technology has played a crucial role in helping us to manage the unprecedented challenges of the past two years.

From enabling many of us to work remotely, to providing the means to socialise and entertain ourselves via gaming, streaming and video conferencing, it’s hard to imagine what the situation might have been like without these capabilities to support us.

For the Healthcare sector, COVID-19 necessitated an acceleration of technologies and platforms being deployed into the ecosystem, as new regulations rendered many existing practices and processes either completely unviable or extremely restricted.

As we move forward and adapt to ‘the New Normal’, the conversation will increasingly move from a reactive to a proactive assessment of how technology will shape the future of eHealth. For providers in this space, it won’t simply be a matter of building and delivering innovative solutions, but aligning them with an evolving perception of the wider social mission they should be contributing towards.

Whilst the technology can be truly transformative and drive benefits in terms of both the bottom-line and operational efficiency, it is fundamentally people who will make the difference when it comes to creating a more multi-faceted view of value.

In my time providing strategic hiring for C-Suite Commercial functions, it’s been fascinating to see which traits are increasingly becoming the difference-makers for successful execution and end-user adoption.

Whilst no-one is arguing against the growth potential afforded by technology, finding those who can expedite its delivery, in-line with the wider cultural context is becoming imperative. Research from PwC, carried out before the pandemic, helps shed some light on one of the defining challenges for technological change.

In a survey of 92 Digital Healthcare stakeholders, including CEOs, CIOs, Consultants, and Researchers within the NHS, 3% of those surveyed felt that a risk-averse approach to investment in technology was preventing innovation, whilst 54% pointed to a resistance to evolution of traditional practices as a key barrier to Healthcare transformation.

Whilst COVID-19 removed a great deal of resistance to adoption through brute necessity alone, this pace will likely slow, and providers will need to understand the mindset of their end-user communities, and identify how their propositions can best support them.

For the C-Suite, this means remaining cognizant of the points of resistance in their customer environments and remaining mission-led in what is likely to be a market landscape defined by the wider goal of delivering positive social impact.

Achieving this requires investing in, building on, and hiring skill-sets that not only incorporate a revenue-driven mindset, but also have an ability to maintain a keen affinity with the market; building and galvanising interpersonal connections, motivating teams, consistently demonstrating empathy and integrity, and directing these efforts towards long-term value, sustainability, and a wider benefit for society.

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