Teladoc Health International CEO: “We’re opening an on-line hub in Barcelona because this city has the talent and opportunity to lead Europe’s healthtech sector”
“Barcelona has the talent and opportunity to lead Europe’s healthtech sector and our company wants to make the city a benchmark center for innovative telehealth technology,” explained the Teladoc Health International CEO, Carlos Nueno, at the latest session of Matins Esade. In this respect, the CEO announced that Teladoc Health, a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, will be setting up an “innovation hub in Barcelona in the coming days to lead telehealth in Europe and boost knowledge and technology development around the globe.”
For the creation of this new digital hub, the international division of Teladoc Health, based in Barcelona, has already hired a team of 50 developers, “although we plan to increase hub staff to a total of 100 experts in the coming months,” explained the telehealth CEO. He believes that “In the coming years, the impact and roll-out of healthtech will be massive and will create new business and employment opportunities.”
Carlos Nueno also considers that telemedicine will continue to grow in the coming years and is not simply a quick fix in response to the pandemic. “A new normality of medical care has arrived. The healthcare experience has changed forever, particularly for mental health patients, whose numbers have increased in recent years, and patients with chronic illnesses, who are beginning to regard virtual medical services as essential because they help make their diseases more bearable.” For all these reasons, the company, which serves more than 77 million persons and has more than 5,000 employees around the globe, envisages turnover of US$2.4 – 2.5 billion in 2022, up 20% on the previous year, thanks mainly to virtual healthcare services.
In addition, the international business plan of this company, which provides services to national health services and insurance companies in 175 countries, involves the on-going expansion of its main markets, such as Europe and Canada. Teladoc Health also plans to diversify into new lines of business in the sphere of collaborating with hospitals by providing them with telemedicine technology.
Opportunity to be the healthtech leader
“Barcelona has the opportunity to lead the high-growth healthtech sector thanks to the technology and healthcare ecosystem available in the city and throughout the country. Moreover, with the opening of this new technology development hub that we’re announcing today and the local synergies that can be generated, we’ll be able to attract more digital talent. To be precise, we’ll be able to welcome many technology professionals from Eastern European countries who’ve had to migrate,” said the head of Teladoc Health international.
The Teladoc Health International CEO was accompanied by Patricia Valentí, director of Esade Alumni, and Manel Peiró, professor and director of the Institute for Healthcare Management at Esade. Matins Esade are meetings where heads of companies and institutions can discuss their challenges, issues and careers.
