Netcare is rolling out wearable monitors and AI-driven tools across its hospitals, marking what it calls the next phase of its digital healthcare rollout on the back of strong annual results.
“You’re getting an ICU experience in a general ward and it’s effortless. All you have to do is wear a watch,” said Netcare CEO Richard Friedland, explaining the benefit of the wearables for patients.
Produced by Swiss MedTech company Corsano Health, they monitor blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, skin and core body temperature, sleep patterns and cardiac activity such as arrhythmias and atrial fibrillation.
Friedland said the data will be fully encrypted and protected, and complies with European, US and South African medical privacy standards.
“An enormous amount has gone into data protection and ensuring the patient’s data remains the patient’s data.
“Where we’re moving is the concept of an untethered hospital,” said Friedland.
“You don’t have to be attached to a bed and all sorts of wires and stuck there. We want to know you’re monitored wherever you are, in hospital and anywhere else in between.
“The big advantage is if patients start deteriorating, we can pick that up immediately and we can be proactive.”
Netcare is also rolling out AI-driven ambient listening and dictation, which captures doctor–patient conversations and automatically generates structured clinical notes.
Friedland said this will allow clinicians to maintain full focus on the patient during consultations, while an AI assistant produces accurate records in the background that can be reviewed, edited and shared with other doctors or GPs.
The system also extends to nurses, making documentation faster and freeing staff to spend more time on patient care.
He said the influx of technology into Netcare’s hospitals won’t result in job losses or impersonal, machine-only care.
“No robots can deliver care. We need our nurses. They’re at the bedrock of care. They’re at the front line. All we’re doing is making them a lot more efficient and, instead of focusing on the mundane, they can focus on engaging with patients.”
Increased monitoring could possibly even lead to cost savings by reducing unnecessary admissions.
“Once you start giving wearables to patients leaving a hospital, particularly those at high risk, we believe we can avoid unnecessary readmission. If they are being monitored while they’re at home, we can pick up any signs of deterioration before the patient collapses.”
Netcare’s technological innovations come on the back of strong annual financial results.
Adjusted headline earnings per share rose 20.7% to 137.2cs, while total dividends increased 21.4% to 85c per share. Group revenue reached R26.3bn, a 4.5% increase.
Speaking about the private healthcare provider’s prospective performance going into FY2026, Friedland said: “We’re on a very exciting trajectory in what I call the digital dividend. It’s across a whole range of things. And next year, we’ll hopefully continue this.”
Business Times
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.