Digital Health Leaders See Untapped Potential for Startups
At this year’s HLTH conference in Las Vegas, hundreds of digital health startups sought venture capital, new customers, and insights into the healthcare industry. However, the exhibit hall revealed a trend: many companies offered similar solutions, such as clinical documentation tools, telehealth platforms for behavioral health, and chronic disease management. While these areas seem saturated, experts identified some promising, yet underserved, areas ripe for innovation.
Startups to Transform Research into Innovation
Academic medical research is crucial to the field, but often overlooked at industry events, noted Dan Shoenthal, chief innovation officer at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He observed a lack of companies focused on accelerating and translating research into practical tools for 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,” he declared.
Abby Miller Levy, managing partner at Primetime Partners, echoed this sentiment, stating, “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.” Researchers aren’t always equipped for commercialization. Miller Levy would like to see tech developers create better ways for researchers to connect with business-minded teams to bring tools to healthcare settings sooner.
Startups to Enhance Patient Engagement Outside the Clinic
Todd Schwarzinger, partner at Cleveland Clinic Ventures, expressed a need for startups that help patients manage their health daily. “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 explained.
Schwarzinger highlighted a recent partnership between Cleveland Clinic and Ayble Health, a digital health platform helping GI patients manage their digestive health, as an example. He emphasized the need for more solutions like this. Eli Ben-Joseph, CEO of Regard, agreed, noting that much technology is deployed within hospitals. He envisions technology that empowers patients with their data for self-assessments and diagnostics, though he acknowledges this is likely years away. Regardless, Ben-Joseph believes startups should start exploring these possibilities now.
Startups to Create Unified Platforms from Point Solutions
Jason Hill, Ochsner Health’s innovation officer, advocates for AI platforms that integrate various digital health point solutions. “I’d like to see an AI platform that would allow me to pop in a bunch of different models — and to do different scales and use cases that would then help me to drive adoption of those different models,” he said. He cited vision AI in patient rooms as an example with fragmented hardware and software solutions. He proposes a platform to unify them. “Can we create an aggregator that allows us to piece those puzzles together, but also have a single core that will act like a platform? We don’t see a lot of that,” Hill remarked.
Anika Gardenhire, chief digital and information officer at Ardent Health Services, agreed with Hill. “The one thing I feel like I’m not necessarily seeing yet is what I would consider connector technologies or connector platforms,” she said, referring to the need to connect point solutions across the healthcare ecosystem, including community care, payers, providers, and life sciences.
Gardenhire envisions a platform to manage complex processes, such as drug rebates, which involve multiple stakeholders and often lack transparency, leading to cost prediction challenges and cash flow problems. She wants a platform that aggregates these disparate point solutions.
In conclusion, while many digital health startups focus on established markets, these leaders believe significant opportunities remain for new companies to transform underserved areas in healthcare, including research commercialization, patient engagement, and unified platforms.
