Coronavirus: the viral outbreak and the digital health ecosystem

Roberto Ascione, our CEO and Founder, on the coronavirus outbreak: 

"These days in Italy we are facing both the increasingly well contained coronavirus viral outbreak as well as a wide spreading psychosis, which I am concerned will cause serious harm both socially and economically.

Einstein in the 50s said: "The crisis is the greatest blessing for people and nations, because the crisis brings progress. Creativity comes from anxiety as the day comes from the dark night. It’s in the crisis that is inventiveness, discoveries and great strategies".

I hope that all of us as entrepreneurs together with the larger business community will take this opportunity to modernise faster and get back on track future-proof.

This is starting to be visible in my field, where the local digital health ecosystem is taking the opportunity to leapfrog.

As an example, one of our start-up investments, the digital health platform Paginemediche, has released a chatbot able to triage COVID-19 symptoms and direct the users towards the appropriate point of contact or health service per local health authorities’ dispositions. The platform is also offering telemedicine support for free and other enabling services to doctors and patients.

I am sure we will come out of this stronger and that our international friends will sustain us in this as one community across any border".

This post was originally shared on LinkedIn.