LAS VEGAS, Nev. – By Kim Yoon-mi/Korea Biomedical Review correspondent - The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the social and economic burden on women worldwide, but digital healthcare technologies could help them adopt new health tools, digital healthcare industry officials said.

Executives of U.S. digital healthcare companies discussed how to revolutionize women’s health with digital tools at a conference during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022 in Las Vegas on Friday.

They particularly emphasized the need for digital healthcare companies to work with healthcare professionals to speed up the development of technologies for women’s health.

Kenneth Nelson, head of Digital Health, Diagnostics & Monitoring at Biotronik, said digital healthcare and telehealth needed a “catalyst” to drive up adoption and that Covid-19 was the catalyst to drive tons of innovation, awareness, and adoption.

Biotronik is a digital diagnostic company focusing on cardiac and vascular devices.

“The older population was afraid to adopt telehealth. But after Covid-19, they had to do it. It opened people’s eyes that this innovation can work,” Nelson said.

He went on to say that the digital revolution was incredible to resolve health disparities and improve care.

In the next five years, Nelson predicted that people would see a continuation of remote patient monitoring technologies and that telehealth would be even more common than it is today.

Eric Dy, CEO of Bloomlife, a clinical-stage health company developing remote prenatal care solutions for moms and babies, said the Covid-19 pandemic made people realize a limitation of how people thought about telehealth. In addition, various medical devices showed an opportunity to augment the quality of telehealth.

He boldly forecasted that the health space would be “10 times bigger five years from now.”

He started his company in 2014 and has seen many changes in women’s health in the industry for the past several years.

“We’re starting to see bigger deals come together for women’s health companies. As a result, you’ll see more venture dollars coming in,” Dy said.

Another expert said clinicians and engineers should be able to work together to give women more access to healthcare.

Christina Wurster, CEO at Society for Maternal and Fetal Medicine, said the U.S. ranked first in maternal mortality among advanced countries, and Medicaid covered only 40 percent of pregnancies.

“We are prioritizing Medicaid extension, support postpartum care, use of digital health tools to enable better care, particularly in rural areas where access is difficult. We also try to prioritize the inclusion of women in clinical trials,” she said.

The role of her society is to make connections between physicians and engineers to improve clinical outcomes and care, Wurster said.

She also noted that there was not a standard application and implementation of telehealth across institutions from a healthcare provider side, and it exacerbated disparities in some cases.

“The challenge is reimbursement. We’re trying to get those permanent so that healthcare providers can continue to use telehealth. Also, pregnant women come in weekly for visits. Telehealth is an extreme opportunity,” she said.