Opinion

September 10, 2020

Some healthtech is failing — and that’s a major sign of progress

Not every new drug works first time; we shouldn't expect healthtech to either.


Lydia Yarlott

5 min read

Credit: Vladimir Fedotov, Unsplash

This year has been an incredible time to be a health technologist. For decades prior to March 2020, innovators had been knocking uselessly on institutional doors, whilst frontline clinicians were forced to brave it out — archaic IT systems, bleeps and paper records to contend with. Every so often a promise was uttered (“purge the pager”, “axe the fax!”), but on the shop floor technological advances were made at a snail’s pace.

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