The healthtech industry has boomed in the last 18 months. We’re seeing higher investment expenditure, cool healthtech start-up businesses and tons of job opportunities. In 2018, only 7% of healthcare and pharmaceutical companies had evolved digitally and now, in 2021, the UK are number one current leaders in healthtech VC investment.
It’s not just the UK stepping up, the combined European value of healthtech has increased in value from $8bn in 2016 to $41bn in 2021. According to a recent report from dealroom.co, the increase in investment was driven by telemedicine, operations software and insurtechs.
So, why the sudden surge of healthtech investment? When lockdown struck the UK, healthcare had to dramatically adapt and invest heavily in tech services to advance the way they operate. The majority of users would have noticed accessibility changes to virtual healthcare, including online appointments with doctors and digital health apps becoming increasingly more popular.
The rapid rise in investment has erupted the healthtech recruitment scene with reports showing that at the start of 2021, there were nearly 10,000 new job roles being advertised.
We spoke with Zeta Jhanji, Senior Recruitment Consultant at Digital Gurus - Health, about the change in healthtech recruitment since Covid-19 hit. Zeta shared her professional insights stating that, “the healthtech scene has undoubtably grown in the last 18 months, with many more digital health companies being in need of apps to track patient journeys. There’s been an increase of jobs but also it’s a really competitive market”. Zeta expressed that there is a demand for mid to highly skilled leaders in healthtech and each candidate she speaks with already has 2 or 3 jobs on their radar.
It’s clear the demand for this kind of talent is high right now, but what are the top healthtech areas where wecan expect to see future growth?
From robot-assisted surgeries to virtual healthcare assistants, artificial intelligence (AI), supported by dataanalysis and other diverse technologies, helps enable machines to learn, pin-point illnesses and help speed up diagnosis. Data analytics and AI is also invaluable when keeping track of trillions of patient data, ultimately delivering faster patient care.
The Cloud helps patient data be shared from one place to another safely, which is necessary when healthcare professionals are trying to access medical records and understand the patient history to make a crucial diagnosis. Cloud sharing is way simpler, better for the environment (no paper waste) and is much faster to access – gone are the days of sending all medical files via post or fax, or at least, it’s heading in the right direction.
The patient information system that a hospital uses every day, including medical records, patient history and clinical notes are just a few examples of clinical systems. This data is held on online systems but our healthcare services are facing challenges daily due to lack of functionality among these services. There is high demand for this area of healthtech, which is why Digital Gurus | Health recruiter, George Breen specialises directly in sourcing hard-to-find talent for clinical system roles.
You can get in touch with George and our team for any healthtech talent requests here.
The need for these roles is vital in healthtech organisations since they are involved in the culture of the organisation and lead the shift and evolution of AI, UI/UX and data analytics.
There is a real push for a rise in women in healthtech. Marie Ennis O’Connor, Director of Health Care Social Media Monitor says “lack of gender diversity has real-world consequences for the future of healthcare. How can we build devices and solutions for everyone, if not everyone is involved in their production?”
Zeta Jhanji as featured above, founded and hosts the Women in Health Tech series for Digital Gurus. Zeta is passionate about creating a community for women on a different platform, giving a voice to women across the tech industry.
Follow Zeta Jhanji on LinkedIn for regular interviews with women leaders in the healthtech industry who discuss their thoughts and experiences.
The healthtech industry is predicted to only grow even further, it’s going to be an exciting one to watch. If you’re seeking a job in healthtech, browse our available roles.