Why it matters
SDG 3 focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for all. However, the Covid-19 pandemic and other crises are impeding progress in achieving SDG 3. These challenges amplify existing health disparities and jeopardise efforts aimed at establishing universal health coverage. Additionally, the pandemic has highlighted the urgent need for robust global health security systems to effectively prevent and respond to future pandemics.
The industry’s contribution
Mobile health solutions are playing a growing role in achieving SDG 3. An additional 1.4 billion people have used mobile to improve or monitor their health since 2015, taking the total to 2 billion (36% of mobile subscribers). Examples of health solutions include the following:
Healthcare providers have built a range of mobile apps and websites to facilitate the distribution of knowledge, awareness and education of healthcare-related information. These platforms provide insights into topics such as diseases, maternal or reproductive health and medical procedures.
Digital solutions can be used to connect healthcare providers and patients, enabling them to communicate directly through text, online chat platforms, phone calls or video chats. Telehealth services can help make affordable and quality healthcare more readily available, particularly in LMICs.
Health diagnostics and monitoring at home enable the wider reach of healthcare delivery, as services can be delivered and managed remotely. Many solutions combine IoT devices, such as wearables and clinical-grade devices, with telehealth services. This can help governments improve health outcomes, particularly in rural areas where people travel long distances to speak to medical professionals.
Mobile solutions can also improve health-system financing. For example, mobile money solutions enable affordable insurance offerings to low-income households. Examples from Kenya show that 35% of low-income households using hospital facilities took advantage of M-Pesa transfers to pay their bills.
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Maximising mobile’s impact by 2030
Maximising mobile’s impact on SDG 3 requires extending the reach of digital health services to those on the lowest incomes and driving adoption to serve those with low literacy levels and the least purchasing power. This requires governments to draft laws and regulations that tackle sector-wide information and data governance issues, and to address specific sub-sectors of digital health, such as telehealth and online prescriptions.
Case Studies
Verizon and KPMG deploy private 5G network for the healthcare industry
Today, healthcare systems and providers face new technology challenges, including a significant increase in the number of connected devices, the sophistication of said devices and the need for a fast digital-first experience for both patients and caregivers. Consequently, there is growing demand for the healthcare sector to update IT systems and network infrastructure to enhance patient care and streamline organisational processes. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the industry’s advancement toward digital care.
Verizon Business announced a private 5G network at a new Cleveland Clinic hospital in Mentor, Ohio.[11] The network, based on an Ericsson platform, will help improve patient care and the visitor experience, as well as support caregivers with greater connectivity. Verizon noted the private 5G network will enable solutions and use cases such as patient check-in kiosks, enhanced digital displays, in-room infotainment for patients, asset tracking and AR/VR adoption for clinician education, patient education, assisted surgery and imaging.
Private 5G enables dedicated communications for different hospital environments, including emergency departments, labs and other testing facilities. This could help to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery by offering better networking performance and reliability, lower latency and improved data security and privacy for patients.
Kyivstar provides national digital health service for Ukraine
In 2022, as Russia’s invasion devastated much of Ukraine’s healthcare infrastructure, digital health solutions quickly became essential and have continued to evolve as the war has progressed. One study of 125 Ukrainian medical professionals found that 99% of physicians continued their use of telemedicine tools and more than half of physicians increased their use of telemedicine during the conflict.[12]
In June 2022, Veon’s Kyivstar acquired a controlling stake in Helsi Ukraine, the country’s largest medical information system and leading digital healthcare provider. The strategic investment is part of Kyivstar’s commitment to the rebuilding of Ukraine and will enable the company to scale up an e-health service to a national level to make it available to every Ukrainian. The service will make it possible to book an online telemedicine visit, receive an online telemedicine consultation, obtain an electronic prescription and apply for medication remotely. The new digital health service will also enable the preparation of treatment plans, maintenance of patient medical records and integration with pharmacy chains and laboratories.
Kyvistar’s e-health service will be available to the entire population of Ukraine, including the 6.4 million refugees who have had to leave Ukraine and the estimated 8 million people who are internally displaced.[13] Overall, Veon has pledged to spend $600 million over the next three years on infrastructure projects in Ukraine through Kyivstar.[14]
12 “How Russian-Ukrainian War changed the usage of telemedicine: a questionnaire-based study in Ukraine”, Ankara Medical Journey, 2022
13 “Kyivstar to Provide National Digital Health Service for Ukraine”, Veon, August 2022
14 “Veon commits $600m to Ukraine recovery”, Mobile World Live, June 2023