Telehealth services to expand rapidly: Experts

ISTANBUL

Telehealth, online doctor consultancy services and online patient follow-up are among the rapidly rising trends in Turkey, according to experts.

Studies on digitalized health services are gaining momentum amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital health applications are regarded as both a health care service and an information service. The number of startups operating in the field of digital health is also increasing worldwide. The countries with the most startups in this field are the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France and Canada.

“We see that telehealth services have increased with the pandemic. People are afraid of being in a hospital setting, but they can also suffer from many chronic diseases that require constant follow-up,” said Dr. Erdem Erkul, founder of Cerebrum Tech.

Underlining that they aim to establish a pioneering health-technology ecosystem by establishing strong cooperation with Güven Future in this regard, Erkul said, “One of the most important issues in this field is the protection of personal data and the provision of quality consultancy services.”

While the market volume of the digital health sector reached $100 billion in 2019 worldwide, this figure is expected to rise six times by 2026.

According to experts, health investments shaped by the digitalization process in the coming years will lay the foundations of the health sector in the future.

“With solutions that we have developed in the field of health informatics and digital health, we are taking important steps in providing easily accessible and low-cost health care services to people,” Güven Future General Manager Tolga Tuncer said.

“We have gained significant experience with an active infrastructure in ‘Online Doctor’ for about a year. Data security and patient privacy are our top priorities. Soon, we will continue to achieve outstanding solutions in this field with chronic disease follow-up and artificial intelligence supported diagnosis services,” he added.