Norway’s advantages
Norway has a high adoption rate for digital solutions
The Norwegian healthcare market is characterized by a high pace of innovation and the presence of well-established industry clusters.
As part of our industry screening, we have identified more than 400 Norwegian companies focused on development of welfare technology and various healthcare ICT solutions. Despite strong activity in recent years, we believe Norway still has an unrealized digital advantage. First of all, Norway is among the highest digitized countries globally with strong digital adoption rates among its residents. Secondly, Norway is a ‘high-trust’ society. Combining this with exceptional healthcare data quality, and world leading bio banks, Norway should be able to develop a strong digital position. However, in order to realize the full potential of its databanks, Norway needs to implement better structure for controlling and accessing generic data. The right incentives for sharing of data is also crucial.
We believe Norway can take a pivotal role within healthcare ICT and healthcare tech. On the other hand, there has been a shortage of capital being raised, and the time to market for companies trying to scale needs to be shortened. Companies in the commercialization phase generally require more financial support, as this phase typically represents a period with high capital burn rates.
Growing demand for healthcare services- interesting changes ahead
The demand for healthcare services is growing exponentially all over the world. We believe healthcare ICT and - technology are key to solving the gap between the increasing demand for healthcare services and the limited supply side that we are facing (also applies globally). We need to find new ways of working in order to maintain today’s quality of healthcare offerings and to use our scarce workforce capacity in the best possible way. The demand for healthcare services is growing due to the well-known age wave. Further to this, the fact that we live longer adds additional complexity that the sector needs to solve. We live with diseases longer and more people are living with multiple diagnoses, further driving the growth in demand for healthcare services in the future. In addition to this, we have also seen an increase in number of cancer cases and lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes, putting even more pressure on the healthcare system. The healthcare supply side is limited by state finances and the available workforce, and if we do not manage to increase productivity in the healthcare sector, the welfare state, as we know it, is at risk.
Big data and AI (artificial intelligence) can provide faster and more precise diagnostics and earlier detection of risk factors for developing disease. In addition, it should enable personalized treatment. Personalized treatment within cancer is a highly relevant example. The use of AI in detecting rare diseases and correlation between diseases should also be important in the future. This implies that we could be able to set the right diagnosis a lot faster, save more lives and increase knowledge about rare diseases. The potential is enormous, yet several obstacles remain for the practical utilization of these new technologies.
Contribution by
Vibeke Vier Simensen
Head of Healthcare, Corporate Banking, Danske Bank Norway
