Hong Kong’s Healthcare Revolution: The Rise of Healthtech Startups
Hong Kong is very sensitive to its people’s health and has developed multiple technologies to enhance its healthcare sector. It also adapts the best and latest technologies from other countries to enable the people of Hong Kong to live a healthy life. Furthermore, there are always demands and attempts to upgrade and develop the health technology in Hong Kong, making the health care system more credible.
Conventional health care in Hong Kong has many challenges, as mentioned below. These challenges are high costs, a workforce shortage, poor communication, a lack of compliance and a few others. Nonetheless, these challenges are easily confronted with the development of the modern healthcare system in Hong Kong. Through the advancement of health technology, several transformations have occurred in the healthcare system of Hong Kong. Self-funded, health tech startups originating from Hong Kong over the next few years will be significant players in the total health and wellness of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Healthcare Landscape
Hong Kong has an efficient healthcare system that provides all the services required to allow one to enjoy good health. It uses dual-track health systems, and therefore, access to health care services is not an issue. The public and private health care in Hong Kong is unique and is being recognized throughout the international market. Regarding the funding, the public healthcare sector is mainly funded by the government of Hong Kong and a few by respective owners in the case of the private sector.
The UK-based healthcare and medical facilities in Hong Kong are of international standard and can be availed very cheaply. Nevertheless, public hospitals and clinics are, for the most part, overfilled, which impacts the waiting time needed. On the other hand, the private healthcare system provides the same kind of services with better and more convenient waiting periods. However, these services are more expensive than those offered by the public healthcare sector.
Several issues are also currently prevalent in the healthcare sector in Hong Kong, including increasing population aging, a shortage of workforce, increased pressure on the publicly funded healthcare facilities and the escalating cost of healthcare. A significant factor is that 15 percent of Hong Kong’s population comprises the elderly, and the proportion is only set to rise, making elderly care services more essential than a luxury. It opens various healthcare opportunities in Hong Kong for several reasons.
About the operations and functioning of healthcare and health tech ventures, opportunities for setting up such startups are also available in Hong Kong to deliver quality services more effectively and efficiently. Cooperation between the public and private health sectors in Hong Kong means only one thing: people can get the highest level of healthcare services.
The Hong Kong government also appreciates the need for health, especially for the people of Hong Kong, and has developed several measures and strategies for advancing healthcare in Hong Kong. Some of the most beneficial programs are the InnoLife Healthtech Hub, the Elevator Pitch Competition (EPiC), and the New Industrialization Acceleration Scheme. These programs offer all forms of assistance to healthcare innovations in Hong Kong, ranging from funding to sponsorship.
The advancements in the healthcare system have been possible due to the advancements in healthcare technology in Hong Kong. Technology has played a vital role in addressing the healthcare system’s challenges in Hong Kong. With constant developments in technology, people can get faster assistance and quality services at a lower cost. Moreover, maintaining a proper record of the patients and offering remote guidance also becomes easy for the hospitals. Doctors can attend to patients from anywhere and at any time with the help of technology.
Rise of Healthtech Startups in Hong Kong
The last few years have been highly favorable to the health tech startups in Hong Kong. As the analysis of the overall environment of the healthcare industry reveals, there has been a rapid trend of new establishment of companies related to health tech in Hong Kong within the past several years. Therefore, it is the strategic use of technology in delivering health care with higher efficiency, reliability, and quality. Health technology has been classified as digital health, medical technology, and biotechnology.
Digital health means delivering healthcare services through the use of digital technology. It’s the process of applying various applications, platforms, and software to the improvement of healthcare delivery systems. The general need of Medtech is to increase the effectiveness of the tools utilized in the healthcare industry. Whereas biotech deals with the application of living organisms and biological systems to create therapeutic products, discover medicines, and manufacture medical drugs.
Looking at the current position of health technology in Hong Kong, its development has been increasing constantly throughout the last few years. Several factors have contributed to the rise of health tech startups in Hong Kong, as shown below. Some of these standards that have enabled the growth of the startup market in Hong Kong include strategic location, government support, financing, developed healthcare structure, demand, technological innovation, encouraging legislation, and many others. These reasons explain the growth of health tech startups in Hong Kong.
Challenges and Opportunities for Healthtech Startups
Despite entering the market gradually and selectively, current health tech ventures in Hong Kong face certain barriers, among which strict regulatory requirements are of critical importance. Market access in the healthcare sector is fairly liberal in Hong Kong. Information needed for approval for testing of devices and drugs could be difficult. Healthtech startups must take various precautions and obtain licenses and approvals from multiple departments to conduct research. Therefore, you should consult an expert to understand all the legal aspects accurately and avoid making mistakes.
Another challenge for health tech startups is talent acquisition and retention. Hong Kong is home to a large talent pool. However, hiring the right talent for your company can be challenging. You can provide several benefits to your employees. This can help you grab the attention of other talented individuals towards your company. Furthermore, if you get hold of the best individuals in the business, retaining them for the long term can be difficult. Lastly, you want to retain your employees for as long as possible; for this reason, you can offer your employees attractive packages so that they do not jump ship and go elsewhere to work.
Starting a health tech startup is always easy, but one of the biggest struggles has been to fit the innovation into the ever-busy and complex healthcare system. This means that healthtech startups have to find ways of coming up with new ideas that will establish themselves and meet the needs of the healthcare sector.. Moreover, the ideas should be highly adaptable so that they can be easily integrated into the existing healthcare system of Hong Kong.
Apart from these challenges, Hong Kong provides health tech startups with various opportunities that can help them grow and succeed. Hong Kong’s health tech landscape has excellent potential for partnerships and collaborations. Entrepreneurs can use the vast startup network of Hong Kong to meet new people and understand their ideas. Startups with similar ideologies or a startup that complements the operations of the other startup can collaborate. This can help them both grow and conduct operations smoothly in Hong Kong.
Future Outlook for Healthtech in Hong Kong
With continuous advancements in healthcare technology, Hong Kong has become a global health hub. The emerging trends and technologies in the health technology sector have helped Hong Kong to become a global health technology giant. Telehealth, connected health, biosensors, drones, automation and creation, and smart cities built for health are some of the trends that have assisted in reinventing the system of health care in Hong Kong. These technologies are expected to expand even more in the following years so that the status of Hong Kong as a medical city will be even more confirmed.
Hong Kong’s healthcare sector has also been influenced by artificial intelligence and machine learning. The following are the actions that can be automated with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning: recordkeeping and personalized consultation are also possible and have been made easier due to the integration of AI into the healthcare system. By doing so, it means that with all these in the healthcare delivery system, people can get the necessary services that they need within the shortest time possible. Through the developments in health technology, the problems of public health have been mitigated well.
Ready to Form Your Health-Tech Startup in Hong Kong?
There is an ever-increasing demand for healthcare services in the Hong Kong area, which is evidenced by the growing number of high-tech startups. If you want to start your health tech startup in Hong Kong, contact Startupr now. One of the best is a service provider that would make it easy to establish your health tech startup company in Hong Kong.