Over the past decade, many industries have been completely reshaped by digital innovation. Shopping, media consumption, and personal banking are just a few activities that have undergone revolutionary advancements, yet these seismic shifts have hardly been seen in healthcare; that’s all about to change. The next decade will prove to be the era of digital health as conditions are ripe for ushering in the transformation of the healthcare landscape:
- Healthcare Reform. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates the creation of new online health insurance marketplaces, enabling millions of uninsured individuals to purchase coverage. The legislation also incentivizes healthcare providers to shift their business models from a fee-for-service to a fee-for-value proposition. Additionally, the HITECH Act is funneling nearly $26B toward healthcare technology improvement initiatives.
- Investment Infrastructure. Digital health innovators are leveraging the startup infrastructure that has helped launch successful ventures in other industries. There are now incubators and accelerators that specialize in building digital health companies. Similarly, crowdfunding platforms, such as indiegogo and Medstartr, are also fueling digital health startups.
- Healthcare Consumerism. Healthcare is undergoing a transition from a B2B to B2C market as individuals bear more and more financial responsibility for their healthcare costs. Digital health technology is empowering consumers to comparison shop for services like never before.
These trends are now converging and are creating opportunities for disruptive innovators to transform healthcare in America. So, what exactly is disruptive innovation? Coined by management guru, Clayton Christensen, disruptive innovation is a theory “…by which an innovation transforms an existing market or sector by introducing simplicity, convenience, accessibility, and affordability where complication and high cost are the status quo.” Just as Napster and peer-to-peer file sharing services dismantled traditional music retail channels a decade ago and, more recently, tablet adoption has eroded PC sales, history shows us that many consumer-oriented industries have been rapidly transformed by the same forces of disruptive innovation now descending upon healthcare.
Healthcare is a complex landscape and, therefore, many opportunity areas for digital disruptors exist. Successful innovators are starting to develop solutions that exploit current trends observed across the industry:
The Rise of Results-Oriented Care. Providers will be financially incentivized by the government to improve patient health by reducing readmission rates and improving patient population health metrics. In order to achieve these goals, patients must be engaged in and committed to managing their personal health and conditions. Digital disruptors are stepping up to the challenge en masse with new tools and solutions to drive improved health outcomes.
- Increasing Patient Adherence. Improving medication adherence could save billions of dollars by avoiding hospital readmissions and unnecessary medical care. Mobile solutions, like the Walgreens app or Carewire mobile messaging platform, are helping to increase compliance by providing regular prescription and refill reminders. Mango Health is another new mobile app aiming to improve personal health by rewarding users who take their prescriptions regularly with retail gift cards and charity donation opportunities.
Increasing Patient Engagement. Many chronic conditions require ongoing management to avoid hospital admissions. New solutions like Glooko and Asthmapolis, for diabetes and asthma management respectively, are starting to help individuals track, monitor, and better understand their conditions. Other digital innovators, including Rip Road, are beginning to provide patients with engaging, personalized health management programs on their mobile devices.
- Applying Health Analytics and Intelligence. Health data analysis solutions, such as Aver Informatics and Clinicast, will help providers identify at-risk patients so physicians can take proactive care measures and avoid patient readmissions and medical complications.
The Transition to Continuous Care. In order better treat individuals and improve population health, care delivery cannot just occur during encounters at the hospital or doctor’s office anymore. Digital disruptors will empower patients and providers to interact outside of care facilities in new ways and more often than ever before:
- Communicating Through Secure Channels. Secure chat, video, text, and messaging platforms will enable more frequent interactions and communications with providers, particularly in rural areas where healthcare may not be readily available. Digital disruptors are providing alternatives to the traditional office visit, including Breakthrough, a platform for video counseling, and GoGo Health, a platform for remote diagnoses and prescriptions.
- Tracking for Wellness and Prevention. Physicians will ask patients to regularly record information about their health, such as weight, heart rate, and blood pressure so that health data can be analyzed between and during appointments. The mobile application Due Date Plus is a great example how women want to use smartphones throughout their pregnancies for education, tracking, and proactive health management.
The Empowered Healthcare Consumer. Digital tools are starting to help consumers make better health decisions through a variety of new solutions, including:
- Expense Management. Secure platforms like Simplee and CakeHealth are helping individuals understand their healthcare expenses and make financial decisions to optimize HSA/FSA contributions.
- Comparison Shopping. It’s no secret that the struggling U.S. economy has altered the way consumers shop and healthcare consumers are not exempt from the trend. Castlight Health, OkCopay, GoodRx are examples of new services that increase cost transparency in healthcare and help individuals find the best health services at the best prices.
- Consumer Health Devices. The quantified-self movement exemplifies the growing demand for personal health devices. The Scanadu Scout, a medical tricorder that will track and measure various vital signs, is on track to becoming the highest crowdfunded project on indiegogo to-date; and demand for other connected devices like the Nike+ Fuelband, the Withings Smart Body Analyzer scale, or the LUMOback sensor, demonstrates that consumers are open to personal health tracking tools offered by nontraditional health companies. Data from consumer devices will eventually be integrated with health provider information to support and improve patient-centered care efforts.
The examples above start to highlight how exciting digital health is becoming, yet we’re still in the early days. Aspiring digital disruptors are cropping up rapidly and funding for health startups continues to grow each year. In the coming decade, we will be introduced to life-changing digital health solutions that haven’t even been thought of yet. Digital innovators will transcend the status quo and succeed in transforming healthcare into the affordable, accessible, and approachable system that has been eluding us for decades. More importantly, the digital disruption of healthcare will ingrain personal health management into our daily lives, influencing our behaviors and health decisions so that each one of us can live full and vibrant lives.
