Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Chile: The State of Digital Health in 2026

The FIME 2019 report dedicated individual sections to the main digital health markets in Latin America. Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Chile appeared as the economies with the greatest transformation potential — each with its own particularities, strengths, and obstacles. Seven years later, what came true from those projections? Where does each country stand and what opportunities does it offer for digital health innovation?

This article provides an updated analysis, country by country, of the state of digital health in LATAM's four key economies.

Brazil: The Region's Healthtech Giant

What FIME 2019 Said

The report noted that 68% of the Brazilian population had access to some form of digital health, a figure that was already the highest in the region. Brazil had the Telessaude Brasil Redes program and was advancing in the digitization of the SUS (Sistema Unico de Saude). However, fragmentation between states, infrastructure inequality, and ANVISA's regulatory complexity were the main barriers.

The Reality in 2026

Brazil has consolidated itself as the largest healthtech market in Latin America, representing more than 40% of the region's total volume. The most significant advances include:

ConecteSUS and the Rede Nacional de Dados em Saude (RNDS): The ConecteSUS program, which began as a digital vaccination initiative during the pandemic, evolved into the national health data platform. Today it reaches more than 150 million Brazilians and centralizes vaccination information, exam results, digital prescriptions, and care summaries. The RNDS establishes the HL7 FHIR-based interoperability standard for the entire health system.

Mandatory Electronic Patient Record (PEP): Brazil moved toward making the electronic patient record (electronic health record) mandatory across all SUS health units. While implementation varies between municipalities — those in the southeast and south have coverage above 80%, while the north and northeast hover around 50% — the direction is irreversible.

ANVISA Regulation for Software as a Medical Device (SaMD): ANVISA established a clear regulatory framework for medical software, including artificial intelligence algorithms for diagnosis. This has provided legal certainty for healthtechs and attracted international investment.

Startup ecosystem: Brazil has more than 1,000 active healthtechs, ranging from telemedicine platforms to AI solutions for diagnosis, medical supply marketplaces, and hospital management tools. Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, and Belo Horizonte have established themselves as the main hubs.

Opportunity for Davix

The Brazilian market demands solutions that comply with RNDS standards and are compatible with HL7 FHIR. The mandatory PEP opens a massive opportunity window for cloud-native platforms that facilitate the digital transition of thousands of health units still operating with paper or legacy systems.

Colombia: University-Driven Innovation and Pioneering Regulation

What FIME 2019 Said

The report highlighted the role of Colombian universities as innovation engines in digital health. Universidad de los Andes, Universidad Nacional, and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana led research in telemedicine, AI applied to health, and hospital information systems. However, institutional adoption was low and regulation was in its infancy.

The Reality in 2026

Colombia has taken regulatory steps that position it as a regional benchmark:

Law 2015 of 2020 — Interoperable Electronic Health Records: This law, which entered into progressive enforcement, establishes that all healthcare provider institutions must adopt electronic health records with interoperability standards. The goal is for any authorized physician to access a patient's complete history regardless of where they were previously treated. Implementation has advanced significantly in Bogota, Medellin, Cali, and Barranquilla, with persistent challenges in rural municipalities.

Resolution 3100 and the telemedicine framework: Colombia consolidated its regulatory framework for telemedicine, establishing accreditation conditions, technical standards, and quality requirements for telehealth services. Modalities such as teleconsultation, teleinterconsultation, telemonitoring, and teleradiology now have clear legal definitions.

Health e-commerce: A phenomenon particular to Colombia has been the growth of e-commerce platforms specialized in health — from digital pharmacies to medical service marketplaces. This has democratized access to medications and services in areas where in-person offerings were limited.

Universities as laboratories: Colombian universities maintain their innovation role. Telepathology programs connect specialists in Bogota with hospitals in departments like Choco, Vaupes, and Guainia, where the presence of pathologists is virtually nonexistent.

Opportunity for Davix

The implementation of Law 2015 generates demand for electronic health record platforms that comply with Colombian interoperability standards. Institutions seeking regulatory compliance need proven, cloud-native solutions that integrate with existing systems. For more details on regulatory compliance in digital health in LATAM, understanding each country's particularities is essential.

Mexico: The Private Sector Leads, the Public Sector Follows

What FIME 2019 Said

The FIME report described Mexico as a country where telemedicine was used to increase reach to patients in rural and indigenous areas. The private sector already showed dynamism with teleconsultation startups, but the public health system (IMSS, ISSSTE, Secretaria de Salud) was advancing slowly in digitization.

The Reality in 2026

Mexico presents a dual landscape that reflects the country's structural inequalities:

Innovative private sector: The Mexican healthtech ecosystem has grown exponentially. Teleconsultation platforms serve millions of consultations annually. Startups in AI for diagnosis, digital hospital management, and electronic pharmacy have attracted significant investment. Monterrey, Mexico City, and Guadalajara concentrate the most activity.

COFEPRIS and medical software regulation: The Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (COFEPRIS) has advanced in regulating digital medical devices and software as a medical device. Although the framework is still less mature than Brazil's or Colombia's, the direction is clear toward specific and detailed regulation.

Electronic Clinical Record: NOM-024-SSA3-2012 establishes the framework for the electronic clinical record in Mexico. However, adoption in the public sector has been uneven — while third-level hospitals in Mexico City operate with digital systems, rural health centers in Chiapas, Oaxaca, or Guerrero still work predominantly with paper.

Demographic opportunity: With more than 130 million inhabitants, Mexico represents a digital health market with enormous potential. The growing middle class, expanding private health insurance, and pressure for efficiency in the public sector create favorable conditions for technology adoption.

Opportunity for Davix

Mexico offers a dual-track market: the private sector seeks sophisticated solutions that improve patient experience and operational efficiency, while the public sector needs platforms that function under variable infrastructure conditions and comply with NOM-024 regulations.

Chile: The Silent Leader in Digital Health

What FIME 2019 Said

The report cited Soledad Munoz Lopez, CIO of a Chilean institution, highlighting the importance of APIs for health interoperability. Chile already showed a clear vision that digital transformation was not just about digitizing existing processes but redesigning them with technology as an enabler.

The Reality in 2026

Chile has demonstrated that a consistent strategy, although less noisy than its neighbors', produces solid results:

Hospital Digital: The Ministry of Health's Hospital Digital program has become the most cited public telemedicine success case in LATAM. With more than 4 million remote consultations conducted since its creation, it has demonstrated that telemedicine works at scale in a public system. The specialties with the highest demand include dermatology, ophthalmology, mental health, and cardiology.

Leadership in EHR adoption: Chile leads the region in electronic health record adoption in the public sector. The FONASA care network has advanced significantly in digitizing primary care, with most CESFAM (Family Health Centers) operating with digital systems.

API-based interoperability strategy: The API vision that Soledad Munoz Lopez articulated in 2019 has materialized. Chile has adopted HL7 FHIR-based interoperability standards and developed a national strategy that allows different health systems to share data in a standardized way. This is fundamental for patient information to flow between primary care, hospitals, and specialists.

Permanent telemedicine regulation: Chile moved from emergency norms to permanent regulation covering teleconsultation, telemonitoring, telerehabilitation, and telemental health. The electronic medical leave, implemented during the pandemic, became a permanent standard.

Innovation in digital mental health: A Chilean differentiator has been the advance in digital mental health. Telepsychology and telepsychiatry platforms have proliferated, responding to a mental health crisis that the pandemic aggravated and that Chilean society has addressed with relative openness.

Opportunity for Davix

Chile offers a mature market where technology adoption is high and demand centers on solutions that integrate with existing interoperability standards. The opportunity lies in offering platforms that complement the Chilean digital ecosystem with advanced PACS, RIS, and teleradiology capabilities — areas where there is still room for growth.

Comparative Analysis: Who Leads What?

What FIME 2019 Did Not Foresee

Beyond the pandemic as a catalyst, there are developments that no 2019 report could have anticipated:

• The speed of regulatory adoption: countries that had no telemedicine regulation in 2019 now have complete frameworks.
• Generative AI: language models that assist in clinical documentation, health record summaries, and triage did not exist conceptually in 2019.
• Cloud consolidation: the resistance to putting clinical data in the cloud, omnipresent in 2019, has practically disappeared.
• The digital patient: the Latin American patient of 2026 demands digital access to their results, online appointments, and teleconsultation as a minimum standard.

To understand how electronic health record regulations evolve in each country, continuous monitoring of regulatory frameworks is essential.

Conclusion: Four Paths to the Same Destination

Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Chile are all advancing toward the complete digitization of their health systems, but each at its own pace and with its own style. Brazil bets on massive scale and comprehensive regulation. Colombia combines university-driven innovation with progressive regulation. Mexico shows a private sector that runs faster than the public one. Chile demonstrates that strategic consistency outpaces speed.

For healthtech platforms like Davix, this means that there is no single strategy for LATAM — each market requires understanding its regulation, its technological maturity, and the specific needs of its healthcare institutions. What is universal is the direction: digital health is not the future of these four countries. It is their present.