by Julia Pierrepont III, Huang Heng

With the COVID-19 pandemic driving healthcare top-of-mind in consumers and patients seeking to take control of their own care and wellbeing, digital health technology sees a meteoric rise at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022 in Las Vegas this week.

This, and the growing demand for mobility, flexibility and affordability solutions in healthcare, accelerated the digital transformation of the healthcare field, leading to pioneering innovations in telehealth solutions, remote patient monitoring, health assessment robotics, testing, and much more, being showcased at CES.

"We've seen a rapid shift in healthcare innovation, with technology leading the charge to bring quality healthcare to all global citizens," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of Consumer Technology Association, the organizer of CES Las Vegas.

Leading health tech companies like Abbott, Omron Healthcare, P&G and Philips showed up in force at CES this year, and many smaller companies flocked to share their healthcare solutions as well.

Among those exciting health tech innovations, ViraWarn, an airborne COVID-19 breathalyzer developed by Opteev Technologies, attracted many attendees. This testing device, debuted at CES Wednesday, purports to provide an on-the-spot diagnosis of COVID-19 when the user breathes into a mouthpiece.

The device is small enough to fit in a handbag and provides up to two hundred COVID-19 tests per replaceable cartridge, the Baltimore-based company said, adding that users just simply blow into the device and will receive a green "Negative" or red "Positive" result within 5 seconds.

Abbott President and CEO, Robert B. Ford, took to the CES main stage to deliver a keynote speech, becoming the first-ever healthcare company to do so in the expo's 55-year history. His focus was on highlighting how technology can empower healthcare decisions.

"Health is at the center of our ability to live a full life, and the acceleration of health technology has the potential to improve more lives in more places than ever before," said Ford. "And CES is the ideal stage to spotlight how technology is allowing people to take control of their health."

At CES, PatientPoint, a Cincinnati-based company, showed its Patient-Physician Engagement Platform that integrates digital care, communication and educational services across the entire care journey while Omron Healthcare's VitalSight combines remote patient monitoring tool and blood pressure monitors to help manage hypertension.

Moreover, companion and health-assessment robots experienced a boom at this year's CES due to COVID-19, as shutdowns and social distancing cause a sense of isolation, depression, mental health issues and increases in suicide, particularly amongst teens.

"There are so many different products and services and technologies making differences because the whole world is focused on healthcare in the last 20 months," said CEO Shapiro.

Karen Chupka, executive vice president of CTA, confirmed that many doctors participated this year and over 100 healthcare companies exhibited, giving more balance to an expo that had been more centered on high tech, IT and the electronics industry in prior years.