DIGITAL RESET

Nothing could have prepared the world for the unprecedented chain of events over the past two years. We prefaced 2020 and 2021 saying anything is possible, but no one saw this level of hyper volatility completely disrupting business and life as we know it. While the world is now firmly planted in a digital-format, the economic and business outlook for 2022 will remain highly fluid owing to the pandemic. Moreover, it is indeed very likely that in 2022, the majority of Asia Pacific's GDP will be coming from digital products, services, and experiences across industries, with life sciences being one of them.

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One of the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the fast-tracked adoption of digital transformation across various sectors. There has been a quantum improvement in the utilisation of cloud-based infrastructure, high-end processing for applications such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), 3D printing, 5G, remote patient monitoring, robotics, etc.

With the help of technology, doctors in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region are looking to shorten the recovery period and improve the treatment outcome for patients. For instance, the growing adoption of AR, VR and robotics is enabling healthcare professionals to train on any procedure and to stay on top of the latest advancements in medical technology.

Japan-based startup Jolly Good has entered into collaboration with Aichi Medical University Hospital's Pain Centre to research the efficacy of VR therapy for chronic pain.

On the other hand, Singapore-based Kyalio and the Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia (ELSA), a leading surgical association with over 2,600 members, have jointly launched the Day-toDay Endo-Laparoscopic Virtual Reality Surgical Library.

A first in Asia, the multi-platform VR Surgical Library, which utilises real-scene VR, addresses the importance of continuous surgical training and enables cross-border surgical education to be sustained even in the face of COVID-19.

According to Global Data, APAC will be the leading region in terms of 5G technology adoption with 1.14 billion subscribers, accounting for 65 per cent of global 5G subscriptions by 2024, with South Korea, China, Japan and Australia leading the way.