Hundreds of digital health startups converged at this year’s HLTH conference in Las Vegas last week, all vying for venture capital, new customers, and insights into the evolving healthcare landscape. However, the exhibit hall revealed a crowded market, with many companies offering similar solutions: clinical documentation tools, telehealth platforms for behavioral health, and chronic disease management platforms. While these areas are competitive, certain niches within the digital health startup space remain surprisingly underdeveloped. During the conference, I spoke with investors and digital health executives to identify promising areas where new startups could make a significant impact. Here are some of their key observations.
Transforming Research into Innovation
Dan Shoenthal, Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, highlighted the crucial role of academic medical research, a topic often overlooked at industry events. He noted a scarcity of companies focused on advancing medical research and translating it into practical tools for healthcare providers. “There are not a lot of companies that have a focus on accelerating and advancing both the research and then the translation of that research into actual bedside tools. It seems to be an ignored space,” Shoenthal stated.
Abby Miller Levy, Managing Partner at Primetime Partners, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the need to bridge the gap between research and commercialization. “The United States has the best research institutions in the world — but I don’t think we’re doing a great job connecting the dots,” she explained. Miller Levy also pointed out that researchers are not always well-equipped to commercialize their discoveries. She envisioned tech developers creating better avenues for researchers to connect with business-minded founding teams, accelerating the implementation of new tools in healthcare settings.
Engaging Patients Beyond the Clinic
Todd Schwarzinger, partner at Cleveland Clinic Ventures, expressed a desire for more startups focused on empowering patients in their day-to-day health management. “How do we give more tools to our patients? … the ability to manage our patients through more digital tools is really exciting. It can keep them engaged in between visits with our specialists,” he noted. Schwarzinger referenced a recent collaboration between Cleveland Clinic and Ayble Health, a digital health platform, that helps patients with their digestive health between appointments.
Eli Ben-Joseph, CEO of Regard, emphasized the need for technology that extends patient engagement beyond the hospital. He envisioned a future where patients could access and leverage their own medical data for self-assessments and diagnostics as FDA-approved algorithms become more prevalent, but acknowledged this is likely a distant prospect. However, Ben-Joseph encouraged tech developers to start laying the groundwork now.
Integrating Point Solutions into Platforms
Jason Hill, Ochsner Health’s innovation officer, advocated for technology capable of integrating the multitude of point solutions in the digital health world. He proposed an AI platform that could manage a variety of AI models to optimize their adoption and usability. Vision AI in patient rooms presents a specific opportunity, according to Hill, as numerous fragmented hardware and software solutions could be unified into a platform.
Anika Gardenhire, chief digital and information officer at Ardent Health Services, shared Hill’s perspective, identifying a need for “connector technologies or connector platforms.” She believes that platforms, particularly those leveraging large language models, are essential for connecting community care with payers, providers, and life sciences. She specifically pointed to the complexities of drug rebates. Gardenhire suggested that a platform could aggregate various point solutions and streamline this process across the entire continuum of care.
In short, while many digital health startups are focused on creating solutions within existing categories, the executives interviewed agreed that significant opportunities remain for new companies to transform healthcare, whether by bridging the gap between research and commercialization, engaging patients outside the clinic, or uniting fragmented solutions into cohesive platforms. Their feedback highlights the areas where the digital health industry appears poised for its next wave of innovation.
