Vodafone has announced a new strategic alliance with Deloitte which comes to accelerate the adoption of digital health solutions through the launch of Vodafone’s Health Center with Deloitte. This virtual center will combine Vodafone’s interconnected health solutions with Deloitte’s healthcare consulting experience to enable many more people to access Health when and where they need it.
Thanks to this strategic alliance, digital technology and healthcare professionals from the two companies will work together to simplify access to interconnected Health and to solutions for both patients and healthcare professionals.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of connectivity in order to provide critical services such as education and healthcare. Technology can be used to make the provision of healthcare services more efficient for its providers, including even more patients.
A recent survey by the Vodafone Institute showed that 92% of European citizens believe that the health sector needs support urgently through the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund. Vodafone Health Centre, in collaboration with Deloitte, can accelerate this support through innovation and enhanced digitalisation of healthcare in hospitals, the community and the home. Digitalisation is a key objective for the EU and for many governments, as they rebuild after the pandemic.
“Digitalisation contributes to the normalization of the daily lives of patients and professionals. And it will greatly help the accessibility and sustainability of healthcare today and in the future.”, said Lucien Engelen, Global Strategic Healthcare Innovation Advisor Erasmus MC, Laurentius MC and HIMSS.
“Covid has demonstrated the incredible value of collaboration between healthcare providers and industry partners, which has helped redesign and redefine the patient experience and improve outcomes. Connected health is vital to provide more accessible, smarter, remote and data-driven personalized care.”, stated Professor Shafi Ahmed, Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, Barts Health NHS Trust.
Vodafone already connects more than 20 million healthcare devices worldwide through IoT, AI, 5G and Edge Computing to the healthcare sector. For example, Vodafone and Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf (UKD) are building the first 5G campus network of a university hospital in Europe.
“This strategic alliance will act as an accelerator of digital solutions to support the transformation of healthcare services and help the communities we serve. As a digital catalyst, we want to bring Vodafone technology and platforms, combined with Deloitte’s extensive experience in the field, to support the digitization of hospitals, telemedicine, virtual medical visits and remote solutions. As the governments are proceeding with reconstruction, Vodafone will be there to facilitate their goals.”, commented Nick Read, CEO of Vodafone Group.
Deloitte has 24,000 qualified professionals in the global Life Sciences and Healthcare team and has a proven tradition of providing high-quality services to healthcare organizations facing the rapid adoption of innovative digital healthcare solutions, including the delivery of medical supplies by drone and the use of IoT technology for monitoring the feeding tubes of patients. Over the next decade, Deloitte predicts that through interconnected health technologies, about a third of outpatient visits and half of doctors’ visits will be carried out virtually.
“The pandemic has widened inequalities in our society and the provision of health care is not as accessible or as universal as it should be. We want to change that and technology will play a crucial role in this regard. Over the next two decades, healthcare as we know it will change completely, thanks to digital and connected healthcare solutions that provide new and more effective ways to diagnose, treat and support patients. Deloitte and Vodafone will be at the heart of this project, working closely together to implement it on a scale, using our digital skills to change the provision of healthcare for all.”, said Richard Houston, CEO of Deloitte North and Southern Europe.
Both Vodafone and Deloitte are committed to using their networks and capabilities to improve access and quality of healthcare worldwide. Starting across Europe, Vodafone’s Health Centre in partnership with Deloitte will expand its capabilities to other geographies.