Digital health: making medicine more human

Covid-19 has lit a fire under the medical industry, driving them to re-evaluate and incorporate digital engagement models. Now, healthcare companies have a unique opportunity to continue this momentum beyond the pandemic bubble as Healthware Group CEO Roberto Ascione tells Dr Paul Tunnah at the 2021 Frontiers Health conference in Milan. Digital health has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past few years. Driven by necessity, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced a serious conversation around how we can use these digital tools to improve the overall workings of medical care. For Healthware Group CEO Roberto Ascione, this transition has been a long time coming. Born into a family of doctors, his formative years were shaped by two core passions – medicine and technology. Nowadays, combining these two disciplines seems like a natural progression, but, at the time, they were seen as entirely separate fields. Unfazed by this perception, Ascione began to envision a future where medicine and technology not only functioned alongside each other but collided into a system that could vastly improve healthcare, not just for his patients but for all patients. Now, with decades of experience as a thought leader in the digital health space, Ascione has released his first non-fiction book, The Future of Health. It is a crystallisation of his understanding of digital health both past and present, as well as how this asset could help create a proactive approach to healthcare.   • Read the full article in pharmaphorum's Deep Dive digital magazine