After weathering the volatility of the pandemic era, the global digital health ecosystem is settling into structural growth — recalibrating its priorities from rapid scale to long-term and sustainable profitability. Venture capital funding for the sector has stabilised significantly, with approximately $25.1bn in 2024 compared to its peak of $57bn in 2021. This shift towards sustainable enterprises is reflected in the market’s robust growth projections, with the global telehealth sector valued at $151bn in 2025. Experts anticipate this value will reach to $455.3bn by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of 25%.
Bridging Gaps
Digital health tools continue to offer a transformative opportunity to close the care gap in emerging markets where medical infrastructure remains underdeveloped. While some lower-income countries often benefit from over 39 doctors per 10,000 residents as of 2023, sub-Saharan Africa continues to face a critical shortage, with an average of 2.6 per 10,000 as of 2022. In response, the African health technology market has expanded rapidly, reaching its $11bn valuation target for 2025 and setting a new trajectory towards $25.8bn by 2030. This growth can be largely attributed to digital pharmacy and telemedicine centres in Nigeria and Kenya. A notable example is Ghana’s digital health provider mPharma, which expanded its Mutti pharmacy network to serve over 2m patients across nine countries as of late 2024. With the Gabon Strategic Investment Fund, the company was able to achieve a 30% reduction in pharmaceutical procurement costs for public hospitals, thanks to its digitised supply chain management. Such successes underscore the potential for virtual health ecosystems to deliver high-impact care at a significantly lower cost than conventional methods.
Technical Vanguard
Technological innovation, particularly in India, is also serving as a blueprint for the large-scale adoption of digital health missions in emerging economies. In India’s health care system, artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to add $25bn-30bn to GDP by the end of 2025. Central to this success is the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which has created over 799m digital health accounts as of August 2025. This standardisation has provided a secure digital identity for nearly 60% of the population, facilitating seamless data exchange between patients and providers. In rural areas, the use of AI-powered tools for diabetic retinopathy recorded 88% specificity on more than 10,000 images, indicating high field accuracy. These initiatives demonstrate that technology can supplement physical proximity in specialist care.
Enabling Environment
The expansion of digital health is increasingly underpinned by rigorous regulatory frameworks designed to ensure safety and compliance. In the UAE, reports indicate an increase in the use of remote services, with the Dubai Health Authority noting a considerable growth in telehealth services, following a 2023 legislative mandate requiring at least one remote service for every medical facility. This has coincided with a rise in robotic-assisted surgeries in UAE facilities, with one hospital reported conducting 25% of surgeries using such tools in 2023. Similarly, Saudi Arabia is deepening its digital health adoption through the Sehhaty digital platform, which has facilitated over 9.2m virtual appointments since launching in 2019. As the world’s largest virtual facility, Seha Virtual Hospital provides over 30 specialised services across a network of 170 hospitals. These advancements illustrate how government-led mandates and dedicated virtual infrastructure are essential for moving telehealth from the periphery to the core of national health strategies.
Despite these technological strides, a significant annual funding gap still remains, with $176bn required globally to meet the UN’s health-related Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Rising global medical inflation has meant an upward revision of these investment targets to ensure that the benefits of digital health reach marginalised populations across the world.
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