CEO of Conexa, Guilherme Weigert, one of the founding companies of Saúde Digital Brasil, talks about the motivations for being part of the association and the importance of joining forces to further consolidate telehealth in Brazil
Conexa Group, one of the largest independent telemedicine platforms in Latin America and a Digital Health ecosystem, was one of the founding companies of Saúde Digital Brasil. Along with other important players, focused on the purpose of increasing the sector's representation, addressing the regulatory agenda, defining best practices and, in this way, increasing the capillarity of healthcare in Brazil through technology.
The company's CEO, Guilherme Weigert spoke with Saúde Digital Brasil and recalled the motivations for engaging in the initiative, commented on the current and future scenario, in addition to the role that the entity has achieved in the health ecosystem since its foundation.
Follow the full interview.
Saúde Digital Brasil (SDB): How do you see the Digital Health scenario in Brazil today?
Guilherme Weigert: We are experiencing the best moment for digital health in Brazil. We have experienced a great experience and a strong disruption in recent years. Since the beginning of the pandemic, several digital initiatives have accelerated, including everything from digital data capture to teleconsultations and a series of new tools to support the doctor's decision. At this moment, we can say that we are very prepared and the ground is very fertile for new solutions to emerge and companies to start using digital health solutions more and more.
SDB: In your opinion, how has SDB contributed to the sustainability and evolution of the sector?
GW: A group of companies – Conexa being one of them – founded SDB precisely to create content, generate information and try to understand how we could contribute to building digital healthcare in Brazil in the best possible way, with quality standards, care and best practices. The goal has always been to make it increasingly accessible within our country, which faces great difficulties in access and an urgent need for healthcare solutions.
SDB: What motivated Conexa to engage in this initiative?
GW: When we started thinking about founding the SDB, our involvement was largely due to the need for an entity that had more than one representative and a broad field of telemedicine activity. To this end, we brought together the largest and best telemedicine companies to organize themselves and participate in this initiative. All of this happened with the aim of creating this ecosystem to talk about digital health, as we had to consider how the regulatory agenda would be handled, define best practices and help clarify what was happening in the health market and how we would go into the field to actually make digital health a reality in Brazil.
SDB: What is the main advantage of being part of this ecosystem of companies that operate across the entire digital health chain?
GW: Being involved in the SDB is very important, as we have the opportunity to hear from providers that are exclusive to digital health, as well as companies that also operate in other sectors, in the area of diagnostic medicine, hospitals and other companies included in this group and that are part of this ecosystem. This is crucial for us to understand what the biggest problems are and how we can join forces to increase the capillarity of health in Brazil through technology.
SDB: What can we expect for telehealth in the coming years?
GW: We are at a very important moment, taking the first steps towards digitalizing healthcare, dealing with the issue of data interoperability, and creating this infrastructure. We now need to start bringing tools and technologies that have already been developed in other markets to healthcare. This way, we will be able to truly improve the experience of our patients, the decision-making of healthcare professionals, and ensure broad access to digital healthcare in a country that really has great difficulties when it comes to healthcare.
SDB: How will SDB be inserted in this context and can it help solve the challenges?
GW: Basically, it is inserted in this context to understand the challenges, to be able to consolidate the best practices and to fight for important points for the development of health as a whole, as we did, for example, with the regulation. This is a fundamental effort to leverage health in Brazil. It is worth remembering the importance of having players, who practice telemedicine, engaged in SDB. For us at Conexa, being able to be part of this brings several fantastic lessons, which help us to consolidate a stronger, more solid, safer and increasingly powerful digital health ecosystem for our country.
