The healthcare sector has been one of the major beneficiaries of the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of spurring more innovation whether it comes in the form of biotechnological advances in order to find a cure or in administering care via robots. Speaking to the later, more robots could be coming to a hospital near you.
“With many of those contracting COVID-19 picking up the disease in hospital and medical staff suffering significant levels of infection themselves, robots could offer a way of delivering hospital care while reducing the chances of person-to-person transmissions,” a ZDNet article noted. “Prior to COVID-19, robots were mostly used in operating theatres, under the control of surgeons. Now the virus is seeing robots take up new roles in hospitals, replacing clinical and other hospital workers to help with medical care and the logistics of running hospitals.”
Many companies are taking the opportunity to develop and deploy robotics into the healthcare service sector.
“Danish company UVD Robots deployed its self-driving robots to a number of hospitals earlier this year; the machines can disinfect wards off bacteria and viruses using UV light. In Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, robots have also been employed to deliver food and drugs to patients on coronavirus wards.,” the article added.
Capitalizing on Healthcare via ETFs
Investors who want to take advantage of the innovations in health care and look to funds like the Principal Healthcare Innovators Index ETF (BTEC). BTEC seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before expenses, to the performance of the Nasdaq Healthcare Innovators Index.
Under normal circumstances, the fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities of companies that compose the index at the time of purchase. The index uses a quantitative model designed to identify equity securities in the Nasdaq US Benchmark Index (including growth and value stock) that are small and medium capitalization U.S. healthcare companies.
Another fund to consider is the Robo Global Healthcare Technology and Innovation ETF (HTEC). HTEC seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the ROBO Global Healthcare Technology and Innovation Index.
The fund will normally invest at least 80 percent of its total assets in securities of the index or in depositary receipts representing securities of the index. The index is designed to measure the performance of companies that have a portion of their business and revenue derived from the field of healthcare technology, and the potential to grow within this space through innovation and market adoption of such companies, products, and services.
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.