The pandemic caused by the new coronavirus has brought profound changes to social, political, business and relationship structures around the world.
We closed ourselves in and were forced to rethink our habits and, for those who disbelieved in the process of digitalisation in some sectors, we saw change happening and gaining ground at a gallop.
Health has been one of the sectors that has seen the most attention since mid-March 2020, highlighting the weaknesses of the Portuguese national health system.
Inefficient. Overcrowded. Unfit.
I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind that this was the case long before the pandemic, but an overload in this service has shown how essential it is to reorganise the priorities of the Portuguese state.
I believe that this reorganisation involves improvements in management, in valuing and hiring more health professionals, but also in democratising what clinical practice is.
We've seen changes taking place in companies: teleworking, by force of necessity, has been taken up by everyone and what once seemed like a utopia is now the reality for thousands of Portuguese. It has shaken up the structures we knew until then and opened up space for debate that extends beyond company borders. What about healthcare? Isn't this also an opportunity to rethink the way we approach a medical consultation?
In an increasingly technological world, it seems inevitable that we start to see digital health as something more than a Band-Aid in times of Covid-19 and embrace the benefits of this new era: integrated health capable of leveraging synergies between online - video consultation - and offline - traditional consultation.
