HFS Highlight: Capgemini created a joint venture to develop digital healthcare solutions for the European market

In January 2021, Sanofi, Capgemini, Generali, and Orange joined hands to build a joint venture for developing patient-centric healthcare solutions that can be used across Europe. The new entity will be launched virtually in October 2021 and physically in December 2021. As a part of founding members, these four companies will invest €24 million in the project. The initiative brings together the complementary capabilities related to insurance, pharmaceutical, and technology to develop a comprehensive healthcare solution. The project is First European Digital Ecosystem Dedicated to e-Health.

The pandemic has accelerated the transformation in healthcare

COVID-19 has shown the limits of the current healthcare system and opened the possibilities to introduce a truly digital healthcare system from an infrastructure point of view and a patient care and experience point of view. As a result, we have observed that the telehealth platform’s adoption has increased multifold globally. Patients have become active participants in the digital healthcare system, demanding involvement through knowledge sharing and responsibility. As virtual care has become the new normal, there is a need for revamped healthcare facilities integrating telehealth technology with the electronic health record, reimbursement for telehealth visits, revamping hospital and physician practice to support the digital health ecosystem.

The open-innovation approach by the founder firms is expected to spur “disruptive new healthcare models.”

The ecosystem targets large companies and startups across Europe through an open-innovation approach. They will work with a focus on critical themes for one or two years. The project will involve a creative laboratory, a fabrication Lab, a Data Lab, and a Living Lab. Patients and healthcare professionals will be able to develop, test, adjust and assess solutions. Ethical and economic issues will be taken care of by a separate lab that will work with PariSanté Campus to structure and federate an international digital health sector, open to national and international partnerships. The whole ecosystem will be located in Paris. The key pillars of the project are highlighted in Exhibit 1.

Exhibit 1: Key pillars of the digital healthcare project

 Source: Capgemini

“As a global leader in digital technology, one of our major responsibilities for future generations is to put technology at the service of health. This is now a priority for Capgemini, which is proud to participate in this fine project. The founding members all believe that digital technology will provide a tremendous boost; we have the ambition to quickly achieve concrete results”

Aiman Ezzat, CEO of Capgemini Group

The project will be hosted on an online platform centered around an institute that will bring together experts, institutions, schools, universities, and hospitals around data and digital tools in the healthcare sector.

Bottom Line: Capgemini is following a partner/consortium-based approach for some of the emerging areas, and digital healthcare is one among them

In the past few years, Capgemini is leveraging the ecosystem to build innovative solutions across emerging areas. For example,

• In 2018, industry consortium (Generali Global Corporate & Commercial Italia, AIG, UnipolSai Assicurazioni, Aon, Willis Towers Watson, and Capgemini) created the first blockchain-based solution for the corporate insurance market in Italy
• In 2020, Capgemini joined the Open Manufacturing Platform (Founded by Microsoft and the BMW Group) to help accelerate manufacturing innovation at scale

As industry consortia bring together complementary skills essential for the new solutions and the adoption, this digital healthcare solution can observe significant uptake among the healthcare players.