Glen Tullman:
Well, again, as we look at COVID, were going to always remember the tragic loss of life. Number one. Number two, I think, sadly, were going to deal
with what will be the worst prolonged economic challenges that weve had since the Great Depression in the U.S. and around the world. I think were just beginning to see them, because weve muted the effects, the economic effects
through government efforts, all around the world, and we cant continue to do that. So were going to settle into a challenging time economically. Thats the second one. Third, I think, from a mental health standpoint, we have
destabilized everyones world. You know, I cant decide to travel wherever I want to travel anymore because I have to understand state by state and internationally what the regulations are, where I have to shelter in place in quarantine.
And, you know, that is a challenge for me, but for many people, particularly in the U.S., which I know best, we have issues with people being at home with their full family, with their kids, trying to educate them. And that situation has played out
really around the rest of the world as well. So theres going to be mental health challenges as well. And I think when you put all of that together, were going to see kind of this new normal that that really sets the stage for what we
need to do. So now, what role can technology play? Well, technology I think those are the negatives. Technology can help us define maybe one of the positives. And that is, COVID has helped accelerate in many areas this thought of, What
can we do to improve? And lets take one example.
So in the U.S., if you wanted to provide digital care, lets say a digital health
visit, or telehealth as we call it, most health systems were in the range of 3% to 8%. COVID came along and overnight they had to get to 100%. And so we had to train the entire country and much of the world on how to do telehealth, how to do that
effectively, and get to 100%. Now were seeing it starting to settle back in, and it may end up at 40% to 50%. I think thats advanced telehealth by three to four years in terms of how long it wouldve taken to get there. Lets
talk about something like were using Zoom or another kind of communications technology. Today, were doing more and more business that we probably could have been doing a few years back, and doing it very effectively using Zoom.
Maybe were doing a little bit too much of it. Not this session, but during the day. But were going to settle in at using much more digital technology to communicate. So were going to advance in many areas. In healthcare, what
were going to find is: we can provide much, much more healthcare, much more effectively, using digital technologies. And, you know, the interesting I know were going to talk about it, but the merger that we did with Teladoc
allowed us to create the largest global consumer-centric virtual care company in the world. And what does that really mean? Lets unpack that. What it means is that now we can do in healthcare what we were doing in so many other areas. If you
think about it, I could find the impact of technology in four ways. So we saw the first real impact of technology in content. Google redefined how we interact with content.
If you think about it, years ago, you went to the only place that had books was the church. And that was the biggest building in town. And thats
where you went. And then the printing press technology came along and everybody could have it. And then we started to store it in libraries and youd go to the library. And then some wealthier people actually had their own collection called an
encyclopedia. And Google came along, it democratized it, it made it available 24 by 7, anywhere in the world, thats where content is available, and it made it abundant. So it took the cost away. So all of a sudden, it did that in content. Then
along comes Facebook, and community, the second C. And it made you can talk to anybody in the world. You can create groups. You can remember whether theyre people in Israel who you went to school with, or served with, whether
theyre people in India, whether theyre people in Brazil, it doesnt matter. You can be in touch with them 24 by 7. Amazing, abundant, free. Amazing. Third. We saw it, and this was accelerated, with commerce, the third C, and that
was Amazon. And now, 24 by 7, anything you want, anywhere in the world, you can get it instantly. You can find out information about it.