Healthcare Trends and Opportunities

FountainBlue’s March 2 VIP roundtable was on the topic of ‘Healthcare Trends and Predictions’, sponsored by our gracious hosts at Samsung.  

Our executives in attendance represented a broad spectrum of entrepreneurs and executives with broad and deep experience around healthcare. Each is focused on moving the needle forward, coordinating with a broad spectrum of stakeholders.

It’s clear from our interactive conversations that hardware and software work together to serve the needs of the customer, but ongoing customized services, personalized to the needs of each customer make a huge difference. But how to make that happen strategically and tactically is no easy feat.

Part of the challenge is the fragmentations in the marketplace. Various stakeholders might have access to different sets of data, for example, without the ability to interpret that data, while other stakeholders don’t have enough information to make recommendations and assessments or plan product feature sets.

It’s the old chicken and the egg question – if the markets and data is fragmented, how do we create a solution which suits most, and if we want it customized, how will we fund and deliver individualized solutions?

But these problems need to be solved. The market opportunity is HUGE and the biggest tech giants are jumping into the market, solving slices of the healthcare problem. Below are some predictions on trends:

• Early detection, pre-screening and even prevention will be hot areas of opportunity.
• Adopting a holistic approach to healthcare, a view of the full person rather than a set of metrics.
• There will be some standardization and definition-setting around digital health and what it means and what it covers. Collaboration and coordination will be easier once we have that base understanding.
• Cyber security around healthcare will be ripe with opportunities. But what’s a real use case that’s relevant, fundable now? A problem we can solve today with today’s customers and today’s technologies?
• Telehealth will go prime time. 
• People are recognizing the importance of apps, the effectiveness of coaching. They are taking responsibility for their own health.
• Apps and programs around Artificial intelligence will be key to customizing solutions and providing input and feedback real-time, affecting real people and their real-time needs.
• Solving the unstructured data problem and connecting that with structured data from multiple sources is a real problem. Once solved, there will be huge opportunities for many different types of solutions.
• Different countries have different types of needs around health, and are embracing and adopting technologies at a different pace. Successful entrepreneurs will factor in the needs of each country, the technology adoption rate of customers in that country, and the policies and protocols of local and federal governments, etc., in making product and marketing decisions.
• There is a huge market for serving health-minded communities with similar needs and backgrounds. Not only could you connect the members to specific services and support, thereby hopefully positively impacting their health, you may also connect them to each other and make it easier for them to purchase ancillary products and services.
• If having a division at the FDA is an indicator, Femtech will one day soon be hot.
• Solutions for customers to self-manage chronic diseases through a software and hardware combination will continue to be well received.
• The changing rules of insurance companies is already putting more onus on the hospitals, which makes them more receptive to solutions which would improve the level of care at the hospital, and also as patients leave. What’s the opportunity around this?
• There’s a high consumer demand for customized solutions, integrating hardware and software and providing real-time information and personalized support.

Key to the success of healthcare related ventures is the need to innovate leveraging technology, to collaborate with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, to facilitate success with policies and protocols at the government, enterprise and personal levels, and to coordinate with leaders and innovators to bring products and services to customers/patients in need.

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