Was catching up on some digital health reading. I recommend two really good report links in the comments. First is CB Insights Top Trends to Watch in 2020. The other is MobiHealth’s Predictions for 2020.
Here are my five key takeaways:
- Apple is doubling down on healthcare. The Apple Watch now detects falls and monitors your heart rate and helps with diabetes management. Arguably, Apple has an advantage when it comes to data privacy.
- Watch Amazon. Amazon Care is currently an experiment, but this could expand to include telemedicine and disruption in the pharmacy space. Keep an eye on Haven (JV with JPM & BerkshrHathwy. And Alexa is now HIPAA-compliant.
- Google’s FitBit acquisition will give Apple Watch a meaningful rival. Google has 90 deals + 60 portfolio companies in healthcare.
- Privacy becomes an even bigger deal. There was a lot of consternation around Google’s Project Nightingale jv with Ascencion in 2019. Consumers do not want anyone screwing with their private health info and HIPAA is being challenged for being inadequate. Note that Epic’s Judy Faulkner is using privacy concerns to stave off pressure to share data from its installed network.
- Innovation is coming from Asia. Investment in Asian digital health companies is second only to US and multiples higher than Europe. Expect to see ventures like Tencent’s Trusted Doctor Platform look to the US market for expansion.
**************
Interesting Links
- How To Build a Leading Healthcare Brand
- Becoming an Authority In Something
- Nuvolo’s 1:Many Campaign
- Lower Cost ABM Models
Photo by Stephan Henning on Unsplash