The popularity of telehealth may have grown out of the pandemic but the evolution that has led to its rise has been in the works for decades. The use of telehealth rose 63 fold in 2020 mainly due to it being the only way to access medical care. For Venture Capitalist Sid Jawahar, telehealth being the only way to access medical care has been a story all too familiar. 

Jawahar grew up in New Delhi, India with a grandmother who was suffering from a complication that led to an enlargement in one of her limbs after recovering from lymphoma. That's when he was introduced to the power and endless opportunity of what he called virtual care. "A daily part of our lives was having a doctor who would remotely monitor some of the symptomatic treatments through a computer. Now this was also important because, at that time, healthcare coverage and access wasn't great particularly in more remote parts of the world. Even in New Delhi healthcare has been one of the last frontiers to catch up with the rest of the world. The idea may have not been called "telehealth" back then in my mind, but the idea that virtual care is a necessity for a vast number of people living in parts of the world where healthcare coverage and access wasn't great was something that I lived with. No one had to tell me the value of it - it was impressed upon me from an early age," he shared. 

His early introduction to virtual care came full circle  in 2020 during the pandemic. His journey as a venture capitalist in the midst of a worldwide pandemic sparked the realization that there must be others, similar to his grandmother, who would be in need of patient care and are lacking basic access to such resources. For the first time, people were given a glimpse of the opportunity that virtual care holds as federal mandates were passed offering telehealth access to all. "So coming full circle, those impressionable days left a pretty important mark in my mind and heart that I felt there was a need to further this area of medicine. Investing behind this phenomenon was sort of a no brainer," he said. This prompted Jawahar to launch the $75 million Swiftarc Telehealth Fund with initial focuses on obesity, pediatrics and mental health. "We specifically chose to focus  on obesity, pediatrics and mental health as our first targets of interest based on a comprehensive analysis of market sizing, and we feel these areas are evergreen use cases with massive potential. "If obesity can be stopped in its tracks a bit faster, it saves the healthcare system billions of dollars. This was the rationale behind our first investment in an obesity management platform called Intellihealth," he explained. 

Intellihealth is the first company to take a holistic approach to lifelong weight management by using data driven technology combining medicine and behavioral change to ultimately redefine obesity treatment. Through its Evolve technology, Intellihealth scales obesity treatment by empowering providers with tech-enabled tools, including virtual care platforms that incorporate telehealth, clinical decision support, remote patient monitoring, online education tools, and medical treatment approaches that are personalized for every patient. Solutions such as Intellihealth are a great example of how telehealth can be a necessary solution for global healthcare especially in more remote regions. 

Having seen the rudimentary aspects of telehealth and the gaps it presented to now witnessing such advanced technology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence available, Jawahar finds it an extremely exciting time to invest and incubate novel solutions. More importantly, this has been a personal journey for Jawahar, "Being able to invest in telehealth has provided closure, in a way, to losing an important family member."