Digital Health Explained: Why It Matters and What to Know

Written by Coursera Staff • Updated on

Digital health is transforming how medical professionals provide care, what patients do to receive it, and how health care systems operate. Learn more about how this impactful field is changing health care and what that means for professionals.

[FEATURED IMAGE] A biomedical engineer performs their digital health responsibilities while wearing a badge and a lab coat.

Key takeaways

Digital health uses digital tools and platforms to improve health care outcomes by providing personalized patient care, expanding access, and more.

  • By 2030, the US digital health market is expected to reach a market size of $219.6 billion [1]. 

  • Digital health includes various technologies, including wearable medical devices, mobile health, and telehealth. 

  • You can find various roles in digital health, including software engineer, data scientist, web developer, and user experience (UX) designer.

Learn more about digital health, discover digital health jobs, and explore the role it plays in different professional environments. If you’re ready to develop your skills right away, consider enrolling in the University of Minnesota’s Integrative Health and Medicine Specialization. In as little as two months, you’ll have the chance to learn about integrative therapies and explore evidence-based data that supports their use. 

What is digital health? 

Digital health is the use of digital technologies for health care purposes. The field encompasses a wide variety of digital health technologies and subfields, including health information technology (IT), health informatics, wearable medical devices, software as a medical device (SaMD), personalized medicine, mobile health (mHealth), telemedicine, and telehealth. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the field is quickly growing. According to Statista, by 2030, you can expect revenue in the digital health market to grow 6.14 percent to $219.6 billion [1]. This exponential expansion is a testament to both the increased need for quality health care and the ever-expanding reach of digital technologies. 

Digital health jobs

Pairing digital technology with health care requires numerous specialized professionals. Some of the most common jobs in the digital health care space include:

1. Software engineers

2. Web developers

3. Data scientists

4. Product engineers

5. Biomedical engineers

6. UX designers

Read more: 38 Jobs in the Medical Field: From Practitioners to Support Staff

Digital health tools 

Whether we realize it or not, many of us use digital health technologies every day. For example, wearable devices like Fitbits or smartwatches provide users with continual updates on their activity, such as their step count or heart rate. This technology provides users with important health information that has the potential to improve their individual health. 

Digital health solutions 

Digital health uses the power of digital technologies, such as advanced analytics, to achieve health care goals. As a result, the field has the opportunity to positively impact everyone, from patients to health care providers and professionals. Some of the most common benefits include:

  • Expanded access to health care to historically marginalized communities

  • Decreased health care costs for both patients and providers

  • Improved patient health outcomes through personalized treatment plans 

  • Increased operational efficiency at health facilities, such as hospitals

  • Improved diagnoses through machine learning algorithms

Understanding digital health: Regulatory and health care environment

While digital technology has improved health care delivery and outcomes, it has also greatly altered the health care industry as a whole. In this new landscape, entrepreneurs and developers have encountered new regulations imposed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and health care professionals have had to adapt to new technologies. 

Regulatory environment 

The FDA has strict guidelines for health care products. Over the past decade, the FDA has refined the guidelines for digital technology in health care to ensure that software updates and improvements can be rolled out more efficiently. Nonetheless, entrepreneurs and technology professionals looking to enter the field should be prepared to deal with regulations when joining the field. 

Health care environment 

Professionals working in health care today should expect to become acquainted with new digital technologies more routinely than in the past. While some professionals might be reluctant to adopt such new tools, others might see it as an opportunity to improve their own health services and their patients’ treatment plans. 

Learn more about digital health solutions with our free resources

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Article sources

  1. Statista. “Digital Health - Worldwide, https://www.statista.com/outlook/hmo/digital-health/worldwide.” Accessed January 4, 2026.

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